
te. PS ^4-6^ 

Book '_/yA/^ 

CotpghtW 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



BREATH OF THE 
WORLD 



BY 

STARR HOYT NICHOLS 

• •• • .• •.%*- • 

AUTHOR OF 

"MONTE ROSA, THE EPIC OF AN ALP." 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

^bc Iknlckecbocftec press 

1908 



ii^o 



nRARY "ot CONGRESS 
wo Copies Received 
MOV 27 1903 

CopyrlKiit t" 







Copyright, igo3 

uv 

STARR HOYT NICHOLS 



Ube ttnlcftcrboclietr ipreps, "Hew l^orfc 



CONTENTS 



CRITICS 
SONNET 



BREATH OF THE WORLD: 
The Gates of the Century 
Columbus 
San Salvador 
Ingratitude . 
The Columbus Parade — 1893 
Henry Hudson 
Aborigines . 
1695 

Tecumseh 

Pale-Face and Red-Skin 
Cotton Mather 
Jonathan Edwards 
Rip Van Winkle 
Rousseau 

George Washington 
Lafayette 
Ben Franklin 
Alexander Hamilton 
Thomas Paine 
Jefferson 
Ethan Allen 
Israel Putnam 
Hale and Andre . 



PAGB 

xvii 
xvii 



3 
3 
4 
4 
5 
5 
6 
6 
7 
7 
8 
8 
9 
9 
10 
10 



12 

12 
13 
13 
14 



CONTENTS 



Paul Jones . 

Benedict Arnold 

Webster 

Henry Clay . 

John C. Calhoun 

Harriet Beecher Stowe 

Abraham Lincoln 

General Grant 

Robert E. Lee 

Edison 

Watt 

Napoleon 

F. D. Maurice 

Matthew Arnold 

Charles Darwin 

George Jones, Journalist 

Mozart 

Verdi . 

Wagner 

Zenobia 

Plato . 

Francis Bacon 

Shakespeare 



THE REPUBLIC: 
The Republic 

Election . . . . 

The Union . . . . 

Genius of the United States 
Slavery . , . . 

Emancipation 
Pension List 

iv 



CONTENTS 



Little Italy 
Amalgamation 



PAGE 

33 



EVOLUTION: 

Natura Naturans 

Evolution's Orchestra 

Brain . 

Research 

The Tale of Years 

The Radical . 

Development 

A Suspicion . 

Rising and Risen . 

Ancestors 

The Making of Man 

Man the Animal 

Habits as Fate 



37 
37 
38 
38 
39 
39 
40 
40 
41 
41 
42 
42 
43 



DEMOS: 

Race and Person . 

Genius . 

The Good Old Times 

Our Age 

Desire . 

Brains Many 

Classes and Masses 

Forecast 

Democracy 

The Majority 

The Lion and the Mouse 

Proletariat . 

Hinds . 



47 
47 
48 
48 
49 
49 
50 
SO 
51 
51 
52 
52 
53 



CONTENTS 



VULCAN : 

Machinery 

Socialism 

Cupid and Vulcan 

EZEKIEL 

The Locomotive 

The Factory 

Reveille 

The Newspaper 

Morse's Telegraph 



CRAFTS: 

Electricity . . . . 

The Modern Dance of Death 
The Light-House . 
Planet and Lantern 
The Mariner's Compass . 
Wood's Holl 
Point Judith 
The Millennium . 

CRAFTSMEN: 

The Ambulance 
Mankind 
The Mechanic 
The Engine Driver 
The Switchman 
Custodes 
The Fireman 
The Teamster 
The Farmer . 
The Frontiersman 



CONTENTS 



The Cowboy , 
The Newsboy 
The Placer Miner 
The Laborer 
The Coal-Miner 
Servants 
Johnnie Rags 
Organ Grinder 
The Tenement 
Delmonico's . 
Orient and Occident 
The Tramp 
Samoans 



PAGE 

77 
77 
78 
78 
79 
79 
80 
80 
81 
81 
82 
82 
83 



PROPERTY: 
Plutus . 
Plutus as Jove 
Mammon 
Wealth 

The Root of all Evil 
Temple and Traffic 
St. Francis . 
Mercury 
Captains Twain 
Capital 
Enterprises . 
The Rogue . 
Homestead . 
Strikes . 
Culpa . 
The Speculator 
The Cavalier 



87 

87 
88 
88 
89 

89 
90 
90 
91 
91 
92 
92 
93 
93 
94 
94 
95 



CONTENTS 



SPORT: 

Kings' Reviews 

Yachting 

Baseball 

The Boat Race 

Football 

The Bicycle . 



VIRTUES' VICES: 
Circe 
Economy 
Conscience . 
Duty 
Ikon 
Celibacy 
Troy and To-Day 



VICES' VIRTUES: 
Selfishness . 
Self-Interest 
Slander 
Envy 

Extravagance 
Revenge 
Avarice 
Hatred 
Greed . 
The Gambler 
Divorce 

The Wit of Wealth 
Ignorance 
Welt-Schmerz 



CONTENTS 



PHILOSOPHY: 
Philosophy 
Sin's Sin 
Happiness 
Ideals . 
Attitude 
Depression 
Hope 

Involution 
Man in Nature 
Right and Best 
Materialism . 
Fact and Fairy 
Chance . 
Word-Craft . 
Pith 

Alternative . 
Our Overlords 
Correspondence 
Narrow-Mindedne 
Metaphysic . 
Monotony 
David and Goliath 



121 
121 
122 
122 
123 
123 
124 
124 

126 
126 
127 
127 
128 
128 
129 
129 

131 
131 



SLEEP AND DEATH: 
Sleep 

Sleep and Death 
Eternal Life 
After and Before 
Lethe 
Nirvana 
Immortality . 



135 
^35 
136 
136 
137 
137 
138 



CONTENTS 



The Morgue . 
Pestilence . 

SCHOOLMEN : 

Mephisto 
Corner-Stones 
Credulities . 
Seekers after Gods 
Sects 
Buddha 
Calvinism 
The Puritan . 
The Quaker . 
The Shaker . 
The Sectary . 
Liberal Christians 
The Agnostic 

FAIRY LAND: 
Spirit . 

Sin . . . 

The Fanatic . 
Occultism 

The Question of Evil 
The Black Veil 
Black Friars 

SUPERNATURAL: 
Theology 
Heaven and Earth 
Deus ex Machina . 
The False God 
Worship 



PAGE 

138 
139 



143 
143 
144 
144 

I4S 
145 
146 
146 
147 
147 
148 
148 
149 



153 
153 
154 
154 
155 
155 
156 



159 
159 
160 
160 
161 



CONTENTS 



Sfrmons 

Authority 

God and Nature . 

A Flickering Torch 

Mystery 

The Poppy 

The Coffined Priest 

Early Gods . 

Myth and Science . 

fuliginosus . 

The Holy Coat of Treves 

Milan Cathedral . 

Knowledge of God 

The Will of God . 

Expansions . 



PAGE 
l6l 
162 
162 
163 
163 
164 
164 

166 
166 
167 
167 
168 
16S 



LOVE: 

Beloved 

Pan and Echo 

Venus Victrix 

Disparted 

Dear Despair 

Solatium 

Brooding 

Waking and Sleeping 

Don Giovanni 

Love's Treason 

Loving and Liking 

Love and Marriage 

Her New^ Lover 

Thought and Love 

Repentance . 



171 
171 

172 
172 
173 
173 
174 
174 
17s 
17s 
176 
176 
177 
177 
178 



CONTENTS 



A Face . 

Love in a Horse-Car 
FRIENDSHIP: 



PAGE 
178 
179 



Eli Kirke Price 
















183 


Incessu Patuit Dea 














183 


Bereavement 














184 


Friends' Friends 
















184 


Sirens . 
















185 


Frost . 
















i8s 


A Lost Friend 
















186 


Deserted 
















186 


Friends in Need 
















187 


Dies Ir^e 
















187 


LIFE: 


Society ......... igi 


Conversation 
















191 


Walt Whitman 
















192 


Youth and Eld 
















193 


Solus cum Solo 
















193 


Saratoga 
















194 


A Lawsuit 
















194 


A Client 
















I9S 


Old Age 
















195 


Beauty and Time 
















196 


Classic Universities 














ig6 


ANIMALS: 


The Speechless ........ 199 


Felis Leo ......... 199 


The Last Buffalo 
















. 200 



xu 



CONTENTS 



Rover . 








. 


. 


. 200 


The Red Squirrel ....... 201 


A Snap Shot . . . . . . . . .201 


BIRDS: 


The Robin ......... 205 


Bob White 










• 205 


The Blue Jay 










. 206 


The Sparrow's Nest 










. 206 


The Sparrow's Courtship 










. 207 


Bobolink 










. 207 


Wild Pigeons 










. 208 


The Turkey . 










. 208 


Migrations . 










. 209 


September 










. 209 


Eagle and Lightning 










. 210 


The Firefly . 










. 210 


FLOWERS: 


The Red Peony ." . . . . . . .213 


Chrysanthemums . . . . . . , .213 


NATURE: 


The Hudson ......... 217 


Manhattan Bay 












. 217 


Newport — 1891 












. 218 


Mount Desert 












. 218 


Water . 












. 219 


At Sea . 












. 219 


Sea-Waves . 












. 220 


Calm and Tempest 












. 220 


Niagara 












. 221 


The Great Lakes . 












. 221 



xm 



CONTENTS 



A Trout Brook 

The Mississippi 

The New England Elm 

Nature's Festivals 

Autumn 

Indian Summer 

The Birth of a Cyclone 

The South Yard . 

A Hot Wave . 

New Year at Bombay 

The Heavens. 

To-Day . 

Finis 

Old Comrades 



OF VARIOUS FEATHER: 
Beauty 

The Bachelor's Last Dinner 
A Rebel Slave 
Spring-Tide . 
Apple Blossoms 
Love and Wealth . 
Love and Friendship 
Unrest .... 
Aphrodite 
Love's Peril . 
The Bat 

The Squirrel and the Lion 
Felix Amor . 
The White Fleet . 
The City 
Miser .... 

xiv 



CONTENTS 










PAGE 


Spendthrift ......... 255 


Melancholy .... 








• 256 


The Fickle Winds 








. 256 


Physics .... 








• 257 


Circe ..... 








. 258 


Exile ..... 








. 258 


At a Concert 








• 259 


Wine and Love 








. 260 


Love's Excuse for Fickleness 








. 261 


A Wife ..... 








. 262 


Man's Future 








. 263 


Carpe Diem .... 








. 264 


Her Favor .... 








. 266 


Mouse and Match . 








. 266 


Flesh and Thought 








. 267 


The Whippoorwill 








. 268 


Tennyson .... 








. 269 


The Rosegg Glacier 








. 270 



XV 



CRITICS 

Kind friends, whose words of praise so free 

Have been my solace midst of careless men, 

Enkindling heart and brain, when else my pen 

Had wandered idly from sweet verse, here see 

The work your favor wrings afresh from me ! 

And if a late repentance ripens when 

These numbers you peruse, be kind again, 

For now too late your lashes I should flee. 

A wonder 't were, if guides such as ye are. 

Trained in good books and words arranged with art, 

Should be quite wrong, and all your subtle care 

Did but misfit you to play well your part ; 

So, I, the happy subject of your praise, 

Once more adventure into public gaze. 



THE SONNET . 

The sonnet is a wine-cup whence should rise 

Aromas fine and delicate as those 

Of choice Vesuvian vintage named for woes 

Of sad Gethsemane, that banish sighs; 

Or it may be a clarion's voice that cries 

In thrilling tones a battle 'gainst man's foes. 

Or a slim flute's clear tone that comes and goes 

"Where gladness fills the air with melodies; 

Or it may be love's royal, lotus flower 

Expanding in full splendor when fresh youth, 

Glowing with passion's fervor, crowns the hour 

Which has no rival in our life forsooth ; 

Or it may be the hearse where starkly lies 

Life's glory or love's fatal sacrifice. 



Breath of the World 



THE GATES OF THE CENTURY 

As some foot-weary caravan from the East 
Heavy with gems and ivories and all rare, 
Rich orient plunder that men love to share, 
Nearing a mighty city finds increased 
The highway throng and press of ladened beast, 
So these our century's closing years, that bear 
Upon their camels costliest bales, and fare 
Towards portals new, where they shall be released, 
Approach a mightier age whose promise large 
Already crowds the ways of human hope 
With shadowy figures of a richer charge 
Than any past held in its straitened scope. 
The gate that on the illustrious century closes 
Opes on the new as June on budding roses. 



COLUMBUS 

What lion-heart throbbed in Columbus' breast 
That he should launch slim ships to beat his way 
O'er foaming leagues of never-travelled sea 
That flashed down the illimitable west ! 
Who but a dreamer with a prophet's zest 
Would dare to seek a world beyond all ken. 
Possessed of fairy monsters and strange men, 
Nor turn his rudder till was reached his quest? 
But when upon gray ocean's vacant ring 
A low green isle with plumy palm-trees shone. 
What wonder that his men knelt worshipping 
To crown the bravest triumph ever won ! 
And what glad thoughts rose in his valiant soul. 
Seeing his dream there on the billows' roll ! 

3 



SAN SALVADOR 

An isle he saw, he gave what lay behind: 

Two continents that lent worn Europe space 

For its sad people to refresh their race, 

And snatch their fortunes from the monarchs blind, 

Whose fumbling made earth wretched for mankind ; 

Lands where men free might laugh with happiness 

And find releases in the sunnier face 

And motley thinking of the common mind. 

Would he had waked but for one hour to hear 

The bugle-call of our democracy 

That bade all quarters of the peopled sphere 

To send confederate squadrons o'er the sea 

In honor of his matchless deed ! And raise 

To him as to a god their psalm of praise. 



INGRATITUDE 

What more pathetic figure hath old time 
Etched in amid his stored miseries 
Than this Columbus victimed to mean spies. 
Chained in his cabin, charged with traitorous crime? 
But as the majesty of Lear sublime 
Discrowned, dis-kingdomed, raving to foul skies. 
Yet "every inch a king" doth still uprise 
And no less princely than in sceptred prime, 
So shows this sailor, this "high admiral" proud, 
While bigots rage and carping courtiers prate, 
Disowned of craven king and fickle crowd, 
With manly courage mid his foes elate ; 
While we of alien blood — his heirs — conspire 
To arch the centuries with his name — in fire. 

4 



THE COLUMBUS PARADE— 1893 

Huge warships of all nations side by side, 

Oarless and sailless, heedless of the breeze 

Drive their colossal prows with conquering ease 

Against the thrusting of an adverse tide ; 

And mid them three curved caravels — the pride 

Of bold Columbus, when he clove the seas, 

The windy sport of what storm-gods might please, 

Seeking strange ports where keel did never ride. 

Yet these leviathans are proud to dip 

Their bright flags to the pigmy counterpart 

Of his slight ships ; and from the flame-wreathed lip 

Of thundering cannon cheer his dauntless heart. 

Greater than Caesar's fortunes carried well 

The fragile oak of Christopher's caravel. 



HENRY HUDSON 

Bluff Henry Hudson, — his red-letter day, — 
Swung his good ship inside the scythe-like curve 
That bids the green-surged Neptune chafe and swerve, 
Outside the wavelets of Manhattan Bay ; 
The uncharted Narrows saw his tall sails sway; 
Awed red-men, deeming their great Manitou 
With benedictions came, gave welcome true; 
Alas for them ! What fatal futures lay 
Within that towering cruiser's oaken sides! 
For the old sea-dog drove his urgent prow 
'Twixt pillared palisades until the tides 
Gave wave unsalted foaming at his bow; 
So wrote his sailor name in water sure. 
But writing famous long as streams endure. 

5 



ABORIGINES 

How long tall Indians roamed this land and here 
The slim buck took to wife the tawny squaw, 
Bred red pappooses as his cubs a bear, 
And reared them on the yield of stream and shaw: 
Dim centuries fled; aloft gray eagles screamed. 
Panther and wolf his wigwam-camp beset; 
Oft shrilled he war-whoops where his foemen dreamed, 
Oft gravely puffed the peace-wreathed calumet. 
In frescoed skin he prowled to woo or war; 
Trimmed his lithe form with scalps and feathers gay; 
With his beast-totem did the white-birch scar, 
And like the wood-fowl threw his years away ; 
Ungrudging nature nursed his untaught brood 
Through what millenniums of waste solitude? 



1695 

His dusky aboriginals, two thousand told 
Their sombre sachem, chief of Pequot braves, 
Camped in a rude stockade, where Indian graves 
Now fill all ground still theirs by title old ; 
For them did stout John Mason, warrior bold 
Of Plymouth colony, march forth to slay 
One Sabbath afternoon ; and ere the day 
Had faded in December's twilight cold, 
That ancient tribe lay dead around their fires — 
Buck, squaw, pappoose — one gory heap of slain; 
While pious Puritans — grim warrior-quires — 
Raised to their God a psalm of grateful strain; 
Scarce lived a Pequot evermore to tell 
That here his fierce forefathers fighting fell. 

6 



TECUMSEH 

The roaming savages in wigwams free 

Disclosed no sachem of a larger mold 

Than grand Tecumseh, whose shrewd brain enrolled 

Red nations five in one confederacy. 

What worsened history had white settlers seen, 

Had this red captain spread his snares what time 

At wintry Plymouth mid the frosty rime 

Pilgrims were landing from the salt sea green! 

Or when his Puritans Miles Standish led 

In scanty files against their stalwart foes, 

How had their lean ranks fared, had this clear head 

Ambushed his braves behind the forest rows? 

But when he rose to halt his people's fate, 

Pathetic fortune could but cry " Too late!" 



PALE-FACE AND RED-SKIN 

What goblin-haunted forests faced the band 
That first explored our green woods' mysteries! 
Hunting fierce clans of hunting savages, 
Poor painted tribes! They little could understand 
Save chase of wildings through the bushy land ; 
So little knew that nature scorned their wise, 
With plague and famine slew their young like flies, 
And smote their witless braves with hasty hand. 
Now is their heritage a hive of men 
Who axe in hand make echoing forests shake; 
Who run the plough-share through the foxes* den 
And plant great factories where crawled the snake. 
Was it a wrong the idling land to fill 
With lordlier men against the red-man's will? 

7 



COTTON MATHER 

Beneath the pomp and periwig of him 

Perchance a heart of common flesh did beat 

Whose throbs sent Hving blood to hands and feet, 

Lending continuance to life and limb. 

But what a guise of man, both vain and grim, 

Who preached Christ's gospel with salvation sweet, 

Yet at the dreadful gallows raged with heat 

Lest some poor witch be spared at pity's whim. 

So far did superstition mar this man 

That, gentleman, scholar, Christian, as times went, 

He laid upon his day a murderous ban 

And better souls than his to Tophet sent. 

Men praised his parts — would he had found a place 

In his learned ignorance for human grace ! 



JONATHAN EDWARDS 

A strong, sweet nature curdled in its prime 

By surly doctrines, whose hysteric fear 

Raising the ghosts of uncommitted crime, 

Jarred the fine balance of his reason clear; 

His pure face felt the scorch of flaming hell. 

He heard lost souls in ruthless torture rave; 

Saw mid eternal torments doomed to dwell 

Myriads of misbelievers good and brave. 

Fair earth became to him a realm accurst 

God-harried for dead Adam's sin of yore, 

A guilty planet earning still the worst 

Of cruel punishments reserved in store. 

And man's will hand-cuffed to God's stem decrees 

Helped him to hell through sin's unhealed disease. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 

Old Rip Van Winkle — so Dame Fortune spun — 

Hath o'er the cloudy Catskills cast a spell, 

Where thunders low to ghostly nine-pins swell, 

And flits Rip's genius with his rusty gun. 

As sketched by Irving, played by JeflEerson. 

A worthless creature fleeing the clamorous knell 

Of his shrew's tongue, made haunted gorges tell 

Of foaming flagons and the sleep he won. 

This slipshod roysterer drifting down his day, 

To dogs and children dearer than to great. 

Who knew him for an idle castaway, 

Hath with these solemn mountains linked his fate. 

And busy ages still his romance cherish 

With jovial memories, letting saints' names perish. 



ROUSSEAU 

The shrewd world-spirit on its jaunt through time 
Puts up in many a curious tenement 
Forlorn or goodly, comic or sublime, 
Yet ne'er complains however poor its tent. 
'T is ugly Socrates, Mahomet mean, 
Or hermit Peter, Cromwell regicide, 
Coarse Luther, churl Napoleon, Darwin keen, 
Or our rail-splitter Lincoln, erst decried. 
So once he housed in French Rousseau, a strange, 
Disreputable genius, rare of wit, 
Whose vibrant words rang in a day of change. 
Knelling the doom of aristocracies unfit. 
Kings, nobles, priests by his explosive thought 
Blown into fragments to harsh ending brought. 

9 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

As when from out a block of marble nade 
By Greek art chiselled steps a god sublime, 
Glorious in feature, form, and attitude. 
Immortal mid the wrecks of blighting time, 
So from rough quarries of humanity 
By great times sculptured Washington stood forth 
Of godlike mold and godlike soul to be 
A rare high wonder of pure human worth ; 
And as o'er Athens towered the form divine 
Of helmed Athena, guardian of the state, 
Lifting her spear and buckler o'er the shrine 
Where shone her face in light immaculate, 
So stately Washington radiant and alone 
Stands guardian genius of his land — our own. 



LAFAYETTE 

A high-bom Gaul, whose heart beat warm for man. 

Fired with young zeal 'gainst immemorial wrongs, 

Heard our great revolution's bell and ran 

With knightly sword to join our farmer throngs; 

A lordly ease ungnidged he left, since he 

Adored the trinity of that time's grace, 

"Liberty, equality, fraternity," 

More than all luxury that kept men base; 

So won our hearts and made forever dear 

His generous France to all Americans, 

Sister republics linked across the mere 

By his betrothal in the holiest bans; 

Nor shall day dawn that shall not join in one 

Brave Lafayette and our grave Washington. 



BEN FRANKLIN 

Most prying artisan of patient time, 

Philosopher of hearth and farm and mart, 

Gay humorist of common sense subUme, 

FrankUn naught prized or praised from men apart; 

Yet soared his fancy through the upper skies 

To pluck Jove's thunder from his high command ; 

He looked at nature with such fearless eyes, 

She smiled and gave the lightning to his hand. 

Palace and salon vied to laud his name; 

Himself superior by his mien and mind 

Now lends their gilded court his lease of fame, 

To give a halo to its frivolous kind. 

To nature close as glove to hand was he, 

Who mid earth's wisest gave him place to be. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

A fairy changeling. Merlin's later son, 

Graceful in mien, with magic gift of speech, 

Lit on our coasts one morn, heaven-sent to teach 

Our sagest statesmen wisdom ; there was none 

But with winged Mercury's eloquence he won, 

And held amazed at the scarce-rivalled reach 

Of his ethereal genius ; still with each 

He seemed the first whatever race was run ; 

He took men's thoughts in his with subtle wit 

To soothe the jealous, bind the fractious fast, 

The scattered links of feeble states to knit 

To one firm empire matched with time to last ; 

Our chain of union welded he so well 

That time nor rage could rend his powerful spell. 



THOMAS PAINE 

As a white statue buried in the sHme 

Of yellow Tiber, when restored to day 

Comes forth discolored from its bed of clay, 

Nor ever loses traces of the grime ; 

So may a great name from a turbid time 

Emerge distained by slander's muddy spray 

That naught can show its pristine purity, 

Though spotless 't were as any babe of crime. 

Tom Paine was such, whose bright-eyed genius clear 

Hailed by the greatest of his mighty age 

Shone like a star o'er either hemisphere 

Till lies befouled its glorious embassage; 

Then men forgot his work in freedom's cause 

When it lay fainting 'neath the lion's claws. 



JEFFERSON 

As a bold swimmer plunging in the sea, 

With rapture hears its tumbling billows clash. 

And gives his body to them fearlessly, 

Fearing no evil from such playmates rash, 

So heard our Jefferson the roaring surge 

Of wild democracy as swelling high 

It thundered forward eager to submerge 

The ancient dunes of aristocracy. 

He gave his fortunes to its boisterous play. 

Where colder statesmen shrank the invading tide ; 

Glad as a boy he left the sheltered bay 

To breast the greater ocean's lift outside. 

So his name shines forever in the van 

Of those who made the state American. 



ETHAN ALLEN 

When Ethan Allen with stout soldiers few 
Before Ticonderoga's lonely fort 
Stood on a misty morning with the port 
Of one prepared to make a brave foe rue 
His vain defence, what triumph did ensue! 
His summons, "Yield in great Jehovah's name 
And of the Continental Congress," came 
Like Jove's command to Britain's startled crew ; 
Joyous our colonies the conquest hailed ; 
Success by rashness brought to such quick birth, 
And lifting foes on mirth's light spear impaled, 
Gave place for deathless laughter to dull earth ; 
Such daring may from any fireside spring 
Where freedom has the boys in nourishing. 



ISRAEL PUTNAM 

When at his plough "Old Put" heard war's shrill call, 
He left his gear within the furrow there. 
Rode off his horse to get him powder and ball, 
That for his country he might do and dare ; 
And as the grizzled wolf in his rock den 
In youth he bearded, so he faced the foe 
Oblivious to each deadly peril when 
Compatriots rose to work oppressors' woe ; 
But when at Bunker Hill his soldiers ran. 
Against those fugitives this churchman swore. 
And though defeated won as valor can 
The laurel crown which victors ever wore ; 
And in our annals never shall his name 
Fail from the roll call of the loved of fame. 

13 



HALE AND ANDRE 

Two victims of red war's rapacious will, 

Both young, devoted, to their colors true, 

One in red coat, the other in gray-blue. 

Were to a gibbet hung ; both noble still ; 

Two spies, whom comrades loved as void of ill. 

Their costly sacrifice two nations rue. 

Which then with stupid hate each other slew, 

But now full bumpers to old foemen fill. 

What baleful Fury deaf to coming woes 

Hurls men to slaughter 'neath the sunshine sweet, 

Their cherished comrades now t' assault as foes 

Whom soon as friends once more they gladly greet? 

But those brave souls in dewy youth once slain 

What toast or smile restores them youth again? 



PAUL JONES 

Was ever heard of rasher mariner 
Than stout Paul Jones who harried the English coast 
With fearless sails, and smothered England's boast 
In exploits that made quake the heart of her? 
How swore scared squires in hall and field! What stir 
Uproused all parts, as, flitting like a ghost 
From bight to bight, his ship appeared a host. 
And squads were drilled to halt this visitor! 
Rocks, tempests, nor the thundering foes' broadsides, 
Rent masts nor splintering bulkheads could him fright; 
Had England been but anchored on her tides 
He would have cut her cables and, despite 
Her rage, have towed her o'er the Atlantic wide 
A helpless captive to his patriot pride. 

14 



BENEDICT ARNOLD 

A haughty, rash, and jealous soul, whose fire 

Blazed bright amid the battle's hot affray, 

Quick to resent rebuke time would unsay. 

Caught at revenge to sate his sudden ire ; 

Home, country, friends he tossed upon the pyre 

Of hasty wrath, and ardent to betray 

Nailed his name high with traitors gone astray. 

Trampling its early splendor in the mire. 

'T were better far bright honor not to know, 

Ne'er to have worn the wreaths of happy praise. 

Than having worn to fall to depths so low 

That all men curse whom once they crowned with bays ; 

So smirched is Arnold's name we blush that one 

Bom to our land should earn such malison. 



WEBSTER 

Great-souled defender of the heritage 
Our fathers left, was Webster eloquent, 
Whose clarion voice, against whatever meant 
Disunion's madness, rang in noble rage. 
As with Jove's grandeur, how did he engage 
The listening Senate ! Straining mortal art 
With full outpourings of his patriot heart. 
Secession's awful ruin to presage. 
How was the horror of his prescient fears 
O'ertopped, when farm and city knew 
War's bloody havoc and fast-falling tears, 
The curse of faction's blind, infuriate crew! 
But now restored, "full high advanced," we see 
The flag his words had matched in majesty. 

IS 



HENRY CLAY 

A rich, magnetic voice whose echoes great 
Drift down dim years with ever lessening swell, 
Like dying throbs of some far mountain bell, 
Is Clay to us, who once could dominate 
Attending ears like a superior fate ; 
For on his times his tones persuasive fell 
With generous burden that would hate dispel. 
And hearts anew to country consecrate ; 
His life into our commonwealth was wrought 
As one who could not stoop to projects base ; 
The Union's glory was his foremost thought; 
His honor stainless as a planet's face ; 
A modem Bayard whom no tales decry 
Lives in his record of fine chivalry. 



JOHN C. CALHOUN 

As is a jangling boll in some sole tower 
That clangs forever one discordant note 
For feasts, or fasts, or fires, with brazen throat, 
So was Calhoun reiterate every hour 
Wrangling for slavery and secession sour. 
With the stale tedium of a parrot's rote. 
While freedom's radiant crest he ever smote 
With shameless blows as genius lent him power. 
His clangorous tocsin ringing loud and late 
Called out an angry mob for slavery's guard. 
And marshalled annies to the tierce debate 
Of bloody fields that Union deeply marred. 
Marius mid Carthago's ruins hotly sped 
Is Calhoun's symbol mid his slaveries dead. 
i6 



HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 

Most dainty lady, in whose gentle mind 

Unnumbered flowers as by a wayside sprang, 

Whose frolic fancy in such gay notes sang 

As birdlings warble by no bars confined, 

What spirit touched thy sportiveness so kind 

To blow a warri(jr's trumpet till it rang 

A tingling challenge to the lawless gang 

That bullied all the land the slave to bind? 

No sweeter nature ever found its r61e 

The tenderest thoughts with war-gear to enlace, 

And like Jeanne d'Arc as 't were a sword to wield 

With men-at-arms upon the clashing field, 

And still to walk with woman's fragrant grace, 

A heroine in act, a saint in soul. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

What gentleness suffused the thoughtful soul 
Of our one martyred President, who led. 
Without a word of rancorous import said. 
Mar's blood-stained armies towards the statesman's goal; 
No page he wrote that love could not extol. 
Nor any act allowed of malice bred 
That might in memory rankle, when was dead 
The frantic strife, and reason resumed control. 
His mildness brought as heritage to us 
Such brothers' unity as ne'er before 
Knit hostile States in love ; his generous 
Spirit glows like a shrine that men adore; 
And the foul bullet to his kind heart sent 
With deepest rue o'erbroods our continent. 

17 



GENERAL GRANT 

When war red-handed drew his biting sword, 

And hung revolvers to his dreadful belt, 

A modest soldier who for duty felt 

Stood forth at his loved country's earliest word ; 

Not dreaming that his fight should be adored 

By half the continent, such blows he dealt 

That beaten foemen to his valor knelt 

Till every hostile flag to him was lowered ; 

So rose he to the top of our young world ; 

And grateful countrymen did more augment 

His praise, when peace her white flag had unfurled, 

And civic garlands with his war-wreaths blent; 

Patriot, warrior, statesman, well was won 

His lofty place — our nation's second son. 



ROBERT E. LEE 

A courteous soul of ancient, knightly strain 
Hearing fierce bugles blow their bitter breath 
Spurred instant forth to meet the ravening death. 
Following bright honor through the bloody rain ; 
What ringing battles did his genius gain ! 
But still his squadrons melted till he saith, 
"Some god mine enemy replenisheth, 
'T were butchery to prolong the fight in vain. " 
So like a soldier to a soldier gave 
His good sword up and from war's ranks retired ; 
Not crowned with victor's laurels, yet a brave 
Stout captain whom stem duty had inspired; 
And well content within his home did see 
In his defeat a larger victory. 

i8 



EDISON 

This genius of late times in workman's guise 
Swings wide the gate of nature's dark domain, 
And entering Uke her sovereign v/ise of brain 
Summons the secrets from their mysteries ; 
And they bow down before him, to his eyes 
All nude, like maidens of some slaver's train, 
Whom this strong lord mechanic doth constrain 
To serve his mandate ever sane and wise. 
His wizardry distils new spells each day ; 
Bids light to be and forthwith there is light; 
Man's voice he prints or carries leagues away, 
And drives strong engines to a swifter flight; 
Bright Ariel-Nature whispers in his ear 
Her latest news from atomy and sphere. 



WATT 

More than Columbus or Napoleon, did 
Watt change the antique world, inventor shrewd! 
When by the fireside he did inly brood 
On the slight lifting of a kettle's lid. 
Napoleon bridled Europe and bestrid 
Its kingdoms like a war-god; for what good? 
Watt's thought had power that knew no lassitude 
And it went forth to do what men should bid. 
Columbus gave new worlds but left weak man 
Enslaved to drudgery's millenial blight : 
Watt wheedled steam, that stout barbarian, 
To slave for slaves with never-tiring might : 
Watt tames Columbus' savage continents. 
Napoleon's hosts dismantles like his tents. 
19 



NAPOLEON 



A brigand from rough Corsica astray, 

His blood with wild vendetta-flame afire, 

Greedy, remorseless, and a ready liar. 

Found genius his to do what genius may ; 

Strange times lent Frenchmen for his daring play 

To train as bandits with him, in his hire ; 

The twain half-frenzied with war's fell desire 

Struck hands to raid rich Europe's empires gray. 

He fluttered armies as an eagle crows; 

Crowned kings he collared, kingdoms stole and sold; 

And like a cracksman plundered as he chose 

Pictures and statues, bronzes, jewels, gold; 

Nobles and princes he as grooms abused, 

A royal palace like a trooper used. 

II 

Lonely, as 'mid great Alpine peaks alone 

The Matterhom its elf -hewn grandeur rears 

Remote from rivals, or companion peers 

To match its snow-wreathed cliffs of sculptured stone. 

Napoleon stood apart with comrade none ; 

A frowning grandeur fronting cruel years. 

Aloof from sympathies of smiles or tears. 

While on men's skulls he raised his dreadful throne. 

His genius, like the mountain's fondled storms 

Laced with fierce lightnings shot toward field and town, 

That bore unsparing terrors in all forms 

To blast men's lives where he might win renown; 

Yet for that genius men condone his ill. 

Since greater never did a man's place fill. 



F. D. MAURICE 

Well-wishing scholar, whose embarrassed mind, 
Forever beat the bush with throbbing heart, 
In hopes the modem hares of thought to start 
Mid ancient tomes ! How long with thee purblind 
Had I my way mid folk-lore tales to wind, 
Exploring tombs with hieroglyphs inscribed 
By ignorance, of olden times the bride. 
Yet wert thou noble though to creeds confined! 
Now, issued into breezy realms where life 
Blows clarion challenges as bugle clear. 
My blood stirred by the trumpets of man's strife, 
Bounds with the conflict for things real and near. 
Thy books seem but as spiders' wandering threads 
Hung with bright morning dew upon the meads. 



MATTHEW ARNOLD 

Nature's gross frame betrays "a tendency 

Not of ourselves that makes for righteousness," 

Cries brooding Arnold ranging far and nigh 

For moral raiment man's nude limbs to dress ; 

Yet to this dreamer did no light reveal 

What earthly plant could furnish fibre tough 

To weave a robe shot through with forms ideal. 

And drape crass, bestial man with grace enough. 

So never in his 'plaining hours gave heed 

To what grew rankest round his spuming feet, 

The plant which always he mistook for weed — 

Material wealth, for every vesture meet. 

Art, letters, science, law, and righteousness 

Of wealth's gold thread are woven 'gainst man's distress. 



CHARLES DARWIN 

Deep student ! Who to nature wcrt so true 
That lier still secrecy could never shirk 
Thy patient study, what strange vistas new 
And vast as time's dim corridors thy work 
Has opened to our gaze ! Revealing there 
The thronged procession of the world's advance, 
The method of her movement everywhere; 
Firm laws that keep eternal dominance. 
And how the little to the large may wax, 
The simple to complex; how habits make 
The tiger strenuous, and the serpent lax, 
The eye to see, the facile hand to take, 
A mind to solve the star-mist in its range 
Or frame a stable state on fluent change. 



GEORGE JONES, JOURNALIST 

George Jones, cast in the antique mokl 

Of those to whom the state is more than self, 

More than great power, or pleasure bought with pel!". 

Was lately carried to the churchyard's fold 

A guest of silence — with a name of gold. 

For none could buy him, though one proffered wealth 

Would pay an emperor's ransom, and with stealth 

Enough to leave no trace or what was sold. 

Long live the young republic where plain men 

Keep honor imdishonored stainlessly, 

Holding that even a journal's public pen 

For public duty should be held in fee. 

If these be few, those few shall freiHlom wear 

As lieirloom jewels in her streaming hair. 



MOZART 

When rosy dawn breaks on the shadowy groves, 
A wavering warble of all wild-fowl sweet 
Out-streaming from the throats of feathered droves 
Follows the dayspring o'er the growing wheat; 
So Mozart broke above a sombre earth 
In carols of heart-piercing melody, 
Wherein all songs of fluttering birds found birth 
For raptured men where never bird could be. 
Ah! marvellous boy! with boy's untroubled heart, 
And sportive frolic in life's lightsome play! 
Who can but love thee for thy jocund art 
That lends new charm to every mortal day? 
Though in life's morn thou didst untimely die, 
Still like the lark thou singest from the sky. 



VERDI 

From forth the teeming loins of nature strong, 
Fresh as Apollo in young Grecian days 
Springs Verdi's genius voicing harmonies 
That charm all souls, assuaging half life's wrong. 
He fills the air with an invisible throng 
Of spirits chaunting love and rage and praise. 
Till men enraptured fling him crowns of bays. 
Transported by his many-burdened song. 
An Orpheus of a golden race, whose strain 
Has flowered in genius since the Roman prime. 
From Caesar to Napoleon, its grand brain 
Has shaken the large-orbed world, surprising time. 
Rare Verdi joins th' immortal band, his soul 
Outpouring music that might stars control. 

23 



WAGNER 



We love Niagara's thund'rous organ flow, 
The breezy quires of spring-saluting birds, 
Old ocean's stately marches without words. 
And autumn's windy anthems loud or low; 
All these in restless numbers swift or slow, 
Or sweet or stormy, Wagner hath surprised 
Into his scores as by old Pan advised, 
Whose strains as with his dwarf -folk forges glow. 
More human voices hath he also seized ; 
Love's rapture and despair, the hero's ire, 
Youth's rippling gladsomeness, hate unappeased, 
With e'en the high God's misery on their pyre. 
All mighty passions known to nature surge 
Through his vast chords as were he demiurge. 

II 

As when athwart a boss of frowning cloud 
The storm-god flings his lightning shafts of flame, 
Till every fold with lurid seams is plowed, 
And fire on water writes its foreign name, 
So through his gravest score of harmony 
Swift, meteor strains doth Wagner loosely fling, 
Horns over strings tumultuously ply 
In dazzling pyrotechnic wandering. 
Awhile the erratic meteors wildly dart 
Hither and yon, as did prime chaos near, 
Then gathering to the central theme impart 
An elemental grandeur large and clear; 
Till, blended in th' o'erwhelming climax, all 
Swell to such storm-bursts as might Thor enthrall. 

24 



ZENOBIA 

Zenobia, queen of old Palmyra's gate, 

About whose walls the desert flashed its sands, 

Defied all-conquering Rome with martial bands 

Of swordsmen, spearmen, horsemen, braving fate; 

An airy maid, bright-eyed, of heart elate, 

Since naught her beauty at the court withstands. 

Thought the stout legionaries to her hands 

Might be as wax not insubordinate ; 

Defeated, captive, chained she shamed the streets 

In great Aurelian's haughty triumph led 

A spectacle to Rome's proud populace; 

Yet won a woman's victory to wed, 

And mother Roman boys, while of her seats 

Rude-mannered legions left but smallest trace. 



PLATO 

Great dreamer! who hath long enchanted souls 
With rainbow visions from thy magic pen 
And spells well-woven of things beyond all ken, 
Art thou not chief among the human moles 
That wander round thy cave? Upon thy scrolls 
Is news of nothing that abides with men. 
But only visions of what might have been 
But is not. Yet so much thy dream unrolls 
Of beauty, splendor, colored by witching speech, 
That I too, willing captive, follow thee 
Through the dim realms whereto thy wing doth reach 
And revel in thy gorgeous pageantry. 
But words of charm that paint the air with gold 
To air resolve, when things their charm unfold. 

25 



FRANCIS BACON 

A princely mind, at whose imperial court 
Stood every knowledge of his eager day, 
Garbed by his fancy in such choice array 
As Iris might devise of graceful sort ; 
There wit and humor made increasing sport 
And learning all her treasures would display, 
And sweet-voiced wisdom ever would foresay 
What weal from nature genius might extort ; 
Nature's great self he saw and bent his knee, 
Put his fine hands in hers, as liegeman swore 
To win to her allegiance times to be 
By teaching men to love her fruitful lore ; 
Though not unstained in his perturbed career 
Yet who of human kind may stand his peer? 



SHAKESPEARE 

What strange magician tutored Shakespeare's brain ! 
That statecraft like a statesman he should show; 
History, philosophy, and faery know; 
Of science, trades, and games be deeply fain; 
Dry law and medicine as well explain, 
Music dissect, with folk-lore overflow. 
Strange tongues, far customs, ghost and witchcraft low, 
The love of flowers, beasts, insects, birds, attain; 
Scan men beside of every strain and state ; 
Dainty with maidens be, with harlots lewd; 
With motley, rogue, sot, princes intimate. 
That nothing mundane should his ken elude; 
Bacon was other such, and there were twain. 
Or Bacon lent the player his books and brain. 

26 



The Republic 



27 



THE REPUBLIC 

Son of the youngest time with heart of oak, 

With thews of steel and soul of flashing fire, 

With will to reach the heart of thy desire 

And bring a continent beneath thy yoke! 

Thou art the Hercules of modem folk 

Who hast already strangled serpents twain — ■ 

Rebellion, slavery, that sought in vain 

To slay thee in thy cradle at a stroke! 

Now more than labors twelve are in thy reins, 

Since countless citizens of courage high 

Pour from full hearts into thy swelling veins 

The seething ferments of new liberty ! 

And thou, their demigod with unmailed hand 

Dost guard them safe in thy unsoldiered land! 



ELECTION 

As fall the blossoms of fruit-bearing trees. 
When May is ripening into beauteous June, 
So fall white ballots written with the rune 
Of freemen's choices, on November's knees; 
Blossom and ballot fall, but neither flees 
Except it leave behind a germ that soon 
Shall grow to fruitage 'neath a future noon, 
Or sweet or sour as wise and foolish please. 
Well may we on the issue breathless wait ! 
Since the vast welfare of the nation hides 
In the conclusions there enunciate, 
Whose speechless word for many a moon abides. 
Nor can the crown of king out-majesty 
The uncrowned people choosing king that day, 
39 



THE UNION 

As when outsails a fleet of gallant ships 

From sheltered harbor to the ocean wide, 

Of one great Admiral armored to the lips 

In convoy, each self-steered though side by side ; 

So fared our thirteen States, one stately fleet 

Forth on time's tossing waves to conquer fate; 

Each for itself, from other each discrete. 

Yet all to one command subordinate ; 

And as years fled, new cruisers joined their force, 

Till fourfold multiplied their crowded sails. 

One starry flag at peak, bound on one course, 

Defied all peril of disparting gales; 

Nor can the ocean of humanity 

A braver sight on its broad waters see. 



GENIUS OF THE UNITED STATES 

Black-lettered scholars of old Europe's court 
Are asking from us poet and architect. 
Artist and what not genius of the olden sort, 
Whose works adorn, though little they effect. 
Aim we however at a greater work 
Than a few men of genius to delight 
The silk-clad folk that common labor shirk ; 
We would display a people trained aright 
In clear sound knowledge of the world, and how 
To win them goodly homes, live well, and give 
Their tender children freedom from the woe 
Of painful toils, while youth is theirs to live. 
Nor Shakespeare's book our envy shall awaken 
When wretchedness our commons hath forsaken. 

30 



SLAVERY 

How curst a demon he that slyly sent 

Among our freemen that envenomed snake 

Of slavery spared for closer union's sake, 

Though threatening union with dismemberment ! 

Like viper by the woodman warmed, it bent 

Its hideous head, and hissed and struck until 

Its poison did all veins with madness fill. 

And the young state lay writhing, nearly spent. 

But when the scaly horror fell away. 

Men took new heart, though bathed in bloody sweat, 

As flew their starry banner to the day 

Though every fold with patriots' gore was wet. 

Then from her fastness conquering freedom blew 

Her tingling bugle to good men and true. 



EMANCIPATION 

'T was a dark annal in our nascent state 
When North and South, old comrades dear and tried, 
Mad with disputes no logic could decide 
Closed in loud battle's crash infuriate ; 
Four million slaves, Afric's unfortunate. 
Too imbecile themselves to draw a knife. 
Though clanking squadrons marched to drum and fife, 
Stirred irate pity though deferred till late ; 
Did ever such release outflash 'mid men, 
Or follow clash of bayonet and sword, 
As played electric through the gliding pen 
That cancelled slaveries by a legal word ? 
Good Lincoln writing that one order takes 
High place 'mid fame's immortal favorites. 

31 



PENSION LIST 

"Republics are ungrateful," cried of old 
The pensioners of kings who might bestow 
Ribbons or titles, revenues of gold, 
With princely lavishness for service low ; 
Little one recked, even if the guerdon came 
From plundered subjects' store, content that he 
Recipient was of such bright-feathered game. 
Though poached from state preserves by royalty. 
But we republicans, while showering less 
On statesmen, captains, and our other great, 
Rain more on undistinguished privateness, 
Which else might suffer hardship desperate. 
And each gives of his fruits of toil severe 
With long-lived gratitude time cannot sere. 



LITTLE ITALY 

Columbus' countrymen, a swarthy host, 
Forsake their homes of classic memory. 
Their orange groves and cypress glooms, to be 
Exiles more thriving on a foreign coast ; 
Columbia gains what Italy's need hath lost ; 
Sons of Rome's first republic at the knee 
Of ours — the latest — swear allegiance free, 
While brown eyes pledge our blue in cordial toast ; 
So doth the New World on the Old bestow 
Release from penury's antique thrall of fears; 
The Old sends blood, whose strain from long ago 
Bred captains, statesmen, artists, — all men's peers; 
Sooner will Italy for her loss feel rue 
Than we be cankered by th' Italian dew. 

32 



AMALGAMATION 

Strange races gather to our open shores, 

Bringing all bloods that flow in human veins, 

All forces that derive from human reins 

To swell the vigor through our life that pours; 

Matters it little of their different corps, 

Their dirt and ignorance, poverty or banes, 

Their strange religions or their alien strains — 

A talisman we bear to heal all sores. 

Not freedom, schools, nor equal rights, nor creeds 

Work out our miracle ; the wizard new 

Is greatening wealth that quiets growling needs, 

And washes vileness as with morning dew. 

Where wealth accumulates men ne'er decay, 

Since wealth enlarges every human day. 

3 



33 



Evolution 



35 



NATURA NATURANS 

' The undying tree of evolution grows 
Like some huge banyan of far Indian lands 
That mighty branches through broad heaven outthrows 
And downward countless boles to earth remands ; 
For leaves and fruits it carries tribes of men 
That flaunt their pride, then flutter off and die; 
I Races and empires bears awhile and then 
^Sheds them for others, careless how they lie; 
I The golden stars on its stretched boughs that hang 
•* Ripen and rot, yet leave it hale and green. 
Ne'er giving hint whence its first stirpling sprang 
Or what its flourish may through eons mean; 
The wind of time that in its foliage sighs 
Breathes no word from its twin eternities. 



EVOLUTION'S ORCHESTRA 

A mighty diapason Nature plays 
For ears attuned to her gigantic quires, 
Where restless fickleness of theme and phrase 
Express the vast caprice of her desires; 
Her strings the multitudinous flora are 
In sighing undertone ; her reeds the animals. 
Whose variant species through bold discords bear 
Responsive chords of grand antiphonals. 
With these at last the human score is blent, 
Whose deep, dramatic passion of affairs. 
Love, science, war, and government. 
Sounds the loud horns keyed to immortal bars. 
Strains both of demon and of angel then 
Make clash and chorus of evolving men. 

37 



BRAIN 

That artful matter which we count as dead 
Steals forward hour by hour to higher fonii, 
And, having sauntered on from ooze to wonn, 
Grown more ambitious makes itself a head 
And vaults to thinking brain of quadi-uped ; 
Where tickle convolutions strangely scored 
House wizardries in unexampled horde, 
Such as were ne'er in other trenches bred ; 
Nor even then draws curb, but onward strains, 
Improving types from lower to formulate ; 
Each gens of fish, bird, beast in turn disdains 
And fashions man its present ultimate; 
In him the atom scans the universe 
And its deep secrets doth for tales rehearse. 



RESEARCH 

For ages with short tether men were fain 

To potter round known hills and streams of earth, 

And from wide travel cat-like did refrain, 

Still dozing at the safe, patcnial hearth; 

Now would they ransack isle and continent. 

Scale peaks, plough seas, map rivers, deserts, bights, 

Forever bus3^ growling discontent, 

From bright equators to long polar nights; 

All nature's works have they in mind to scan. 

Pierce the sphynx's secrets, harness force and ride, 

Descry the tlying comets' weight and span. 

The cyclone bridle and the sea-tides guide ; 

Nor does one dream of reaching any end 

Though time should eons to inquiry lend. 



THE TALE OF YEARS 

What lazy ages hath the beadsman Time 
Taled on his rosary of years wherein were coached 
Earth's forms from low to higher — a mounting rhyme- 
Till the grave monkey's cousin had approached 
To laughing man! On him time further waits 
To give his wrangling clans from jars release, 
Of blood-stained warriors make friendly states 
Where goodliness and gain may thrive in peace. 
Years hale him forward through sharp agonies 
To ampler dignities and waxing powers 
That show his past as reek of miseries 
Matched with the mercies of arriving hours; 
The weedy wilderness a garden grows, 
Where brambles throve, abounds the gorgeous rose. 



THE RADICAL 

The stiff conservative would amjjlify 
All past gain as the last gain gainable. 
Whereas uneasy nature will supply 
New evolutions as attainable; 
Nor will she pause for laggards' discontent. 
But, hurrying reinforcements to the field, 
Cry "Forward march" to him what e'er his bent, 
"Go look for far perfections mist-concealed." 
So has the radical as ally true 
Nature's prodigious, forward urgency 
(Howe'er conservatives may writhe and rue). 
To push new movements to new victory ; 
Man's deadliest foemen are the tory squires 
Who scold at fertile nature's fresh desires. 

39 



DEVELOPMENT 

Here goes the heedless creature man, 

Thirstmg for love, or gain, or power, or name; 

And nothing recks that in his restless frame 

Cool nature laboring for her deeper plan — 

To mold a finer animal — doth ban 

His bad, his good doth bless; whereby her aim 

Creeps stealthy on, as hunter toward his game, 

Using his wayward passions as she can. 

A merry dance he leads, or groans with toil ; 

Her seeming lord, yet all too haughty fool; 

And like an earthworm turning sand to soil 

Is in his loftiest moments her blind tool 

To give his frame increasing powers — her goal 

Sought e'en through soaring transports of his soul. 



A SUSPICION 

Is man, perhaps, the simian, who betook 
Himself to eating flesh, and so became 
As carnivore the strongest of his name? 
Strongest and fiercest, that would nothing brook 
To curb his bloody appetite? 'T would look 
As were the violent the pets of dame 
Nature; the gentle, subject to her blame, 
Doomed to erasure in her secret book. 
The cannibal savage aye surpasses those 
Who live on nuts and fmits, the Buddhist poor 
With weakly rice is dulled; who eats his foes 
Or eke his friends finds ample food in store. 
The full-fed predatory waxes great. 
His victims many wane attenuate. 

J.O 



RISING AND RISEN 

A cunning, bloody animal is man, 

Who doth achieve his vaunted primacy 

By craft and cruelty through all his span, 

Heedless how many victims shriek and die; 

Such desperate dealing only could secure 

His kingship 'mid wild beasts of bulk and claw, 

Which low-voiced reason never could conjure, 

Where gentle hands were weaker than a straw; 

Now crowned and sceptred, man would mask his traits, 

Would call the dove his emblem and sing hymns 

To love's self -sacrifice, while he berates 

Those old allies as low, and their help dims; 

But touch his rights! then tooth and claw are bared 

And the old lion bristling stands on guard. 



ANCESTORS 

Who of himself will boast to be liege lord 
And master sole to do his own stout will 
Forgets the countless ancestors aboard 
Battened beneath his hutches, furtive, still ; 
A pirate crew deep in his tissues hid, 
Armed to the teeth with primitive passions strong, 
Ready for mischiefs though his soul forbid, 
Deaf to all reason, fond of old-time wrong; 
Himself, their boasted captain stands aghast, 
Bestorms, bewails, beseeches that gray crew, 
Arresting one is by his mates caught fast, 
And struggling vainly damned their will to do; 
Such freedom finds he as 'mid furious mobs 
Their victim hath to smile between his sobs. 

41 



THE MAKING OF MAN 

The silent years within their soft hands took 
The molds, for hairy beasts by nature made, 
And slowly fingered without lore of book 
To curious changes as each fresh need bade. 
The paw they wrought to hands' felicities. 
Delved fumbling brains with convolutions new. 
Taught bended spines erect on feet to rise. 
Strung growling throats to vocal voices true. 
And with each change new functions grew apace, 
New functions framed to powers of loftier strain, 
Till full-formed man emerged with thoughtful face, 
Art in his fingers, science in his brain. 
So did the dust its atoms recompose 
Till Bacons, Franklins, Darwins shrewd arose. 



MAN THE ANIMAL 

Fish, bird, and beast raised towards infinity 
Is man compacted of all flesh that goes ; 
As fish he swims an atmospheric sea 
Tempestuous, changeful, thick with crafty foes; 
As bird he pranks bewitched with ornament 
Outvying peacock, oriole, wren ; 
Or like the Bobolink on music bent 
Forgets the hour in trancing sounds ; and then 
Prowls and behowls both sea and soil, is here 
A hare, there tiger, yonder ox or fox; 
Cramming with progeny lands far and near, 
King-beast of all, and lord of cognate stocks; 
Then for himself creates a kosmos new 
Where graces reign and pleasures hold review. 

42 



HABITS AS FATE 

Habits form living tissues fit and strong; 

Form species fixed for geologic years ; 

Form ravening lions dead to weakling fears ; 

Form subtle snakes to slide the ground along; 

Form birds in love with gush of blithesome song ; 

Form fishes sportive in lugubrious meres; 

All living creatures as each now appears 

Fast-tethered to his habit-twisted thong; 

Each species in its chosen activities 

But follows wonts articulate in its joints, 

Held by those sinewy machineries 

To those sole purposes that match its points; 

The general force each transient framework borrows 

And gives it chance t' ensure its own to-morrows. 



43 



Demos 



45 



RACE AND PERSON 

How potent seems the lordly person bent 
On ends to him most weighty, till he deems 
The round world made for his environment 
And all things marching to his chosen schemes. 
Yet, as the wind-blown foam on crested waves 
Were e'en the lordliest heroes when compared 
With nameless masses that but peopled graves, 
Begetting only children as they fared. 
For these preserved their race with puissant loins, 
Their race whose solidarity of life 
Outweighs the person as the mine its coins, 
Itself the motive of the advancing strife. 
Cassar and Newton count as bubbles where 
The vast, dark wave of man grows on the air. 



GENIUS 

Greater than all his geniuses is man, 
And abler to attain his larger ends, 
Unled, than all his leaders in the van 
To march him to them; he, real leader, lends 
Their genius to his geniuses, and gives 
The inspirations, claimed to come from heaven, 
To poets, heroes, orators; he lives 
In his own great, who sole had never striven. 
But this race-man, who worships them on high, 
By plodding labor, menial, scorned, and dull, 
Creates the sphere where ease and leisure ply 
Their braggart powers, and genius fares to full. 
Genius can never show his painted wings 
But where toil's wealth its genial sunshine brings. 
47 



THE GOOD OLD TIMES 

As is a steamer thrashing down the bay 

In teeth of wind and tide, quite unconcerned 

So long as black coals in her grates are burned, 

Bearing rich freights and gay humanity — 

As is such steamer to a sail-ship's way, 

That drifts, beats, tacks, and veers as winds are turned, 

Fighting to reach her harbor hardly earned 

When God please, if no wreckage give her stay — 

So is our teeming time to times grown old, 

Whose fitful feats gray braggarts chaunt with lies ; 

Times of much-baffled sailings scant of gold. 

Where foam our days o'er mains of rich surprise ; 

We reach a thousand ports oft longed for then, 

First op'ed to us — the bolder, happier men. 



OUR AGE 

Our day is bolder than all days of yore. 
Finding that courage such advantage earns, 
That with the eagles it takes wing to soar, 
And with the lions sooner fights than turns ; 
Thin ghostly terrors it disdains unharmed. 
Dragons, enchantments, fiends and angels scouts ; 
Jests at old gods and bibles unalarmed. 
And threats of future vengeance boldly flouts; 
Women it decks with freedom's fearless crest ; 
Exalts bold traders o'er gilt soldiers tall; 
Crowns Saint Success above saints east or west, 
And cheers new sports that grim ascetics gall ; 
All earthly things confronts and dominates. 
And all unearthly scornfully awaits. 

48 



DESIRE 

Uneasy, troublous rebel thou, desire! 

Thy mettlesome stir hath brought us all things better; 

Thy play along our nerves in streams of fire 

Hath ever rent in twain tradition's fetter; 

Yet Buddha bans thy cravings; Christians erst 

Scourged their sweet flesh to check thy yearnings sharp; 

Quakers bid strangle thee as one accurst, 

And doting elders at thine unrest carp ; 

Mere ape were man without thy rabid sting; 

Living mid nature's want, unclad and lean. 

Haunting tall trees where he might chatter and swing, 

While day dropped into day and left all mean ; 

But thine electric touch through his flesh shivers 

Till every fibre into wishes quivers. 



BRAINS MANY 

Millions of eager brains released from gyves, 

Wrestling the problems of our fearsome life 

Which challenge all to battle and hourly strife 

Make the democracy that now arrives; 

No leader orders it, no church contrives 

To set a dominant commanding key. 

But each unleashing his own faculty 

Strains towards his chosen goal with zeal that drives 

His million-fold, impatient energies 

Each to it special aim, with wondrous gain 

Of power where he but does her will in his; 

And passion with relish urges him amain. 

Mankind unfettered swells its streams of power 

By every person added to its dower. 

4 49 



CLASSES AND MASSES 

Wluit a mcnagery's din of growling cries 

Breaks on our noisy time! What howls and moans, 

What roars and cheers assault the neutral skies! 

Classes and masses fight ; the victim groans, 

The victor blows his trumpet long and loud ; 

Hearts bleed and hearts exult; the injured wail 

As 'neath scythed chariots tearing through the crowd; 

Shouts, screams, and shrieks peal up and many fail ; 

All iight for place; classes to keep, the mass 

To win ; the masses would be classes clean 

And rich and strong ; they tire of wallowing crass ; 

They wrestle for high prizes, nothing mean; 

Sublime ambition! Let it louder roar 

Tireless as breakers on the arrogant shore. 



FORECAST 

Round sheltered coves of aristocracy 
The world's good fortune cruised for many an age. 
When arts and wise inventions did engage 
But few amid the throngs of men that die; 
Now puts it forth the shoreless deep to try. 
Ventures its treasures where wild typhoons rage, 
Wrecking the barks of flamcn. king and sage, 
'Mid lashing surges of democracy; 
How shall it fare upon that chartless main. 
What storm shall meet or happy voyage sail, 
We know not, who 'neath sun or driving rain 
In that adventure brave th' untrammelled gale; 
But this we know that man cannot be lost, 
So quick his wit however tempest-tossed. 

50 



DEMOCRACY 

Democracy! the thunder of thy tread 

Shakes this and other continents with fear; 

Thy shaggy legions trampling park and bed 

Like herds of rampant buffalo appear; 

But thy wild droves rush on toward objects new, 

Spuming small lives distressed by fortunes mean, 

Intent on nature's affluent residue, 

For welfare hot, with brains alert and keen; 

Thy march heads skyward up the human slope; 

Thy haste outpaces aristocracies; 

Man's standard thou wilt plant above the hope 

Of idler ages spent in plaintive sighs; 

Hail to thy daring, to thy cheery mood, 

And stormy progress, brother multitude! 



THE MAJORITY 

Thou many-headed ruler blindly feared 
By owls who dubbed their own view wise, and called 
Thee Cerberus and Hydra, when appalled 
They saw thy crescent power! How hast thou reared 
Thy nations to a dizzy height, and cleared 
The stigmas that thy slandered strength had galled! 
Since in thy handling man all disenthralled 
Deployed grand forces that the past outpeered ; 
Now shines thine orb above th' enkindled time 
Like some sky-scaling comet sun-enchained. 
That blazons astonished heaven with fires sublime. 
And draws all eyes e'en those with hate distained; 
Wiseacres scoff thy splendors, but wise laud 
And from thy raucous throat hear voice of God. 

51 



THE LION AND THE MOUSE 

Poor raggedness within the strangling net 

Of poverty, with grand limbs leonine 

Enmeshed ! Is there no straying mouse can set 

His teeth to gnaw thee from that webbing fine? 

Thou art so handsome, stalwart, manly, brave. 

Why should such tangling threads thy brain o'erpower 

And hold thee captive to small objects? Crave 

Quick release and to that bend each hour. 

Yet well we know, no mouse or mice will loose 

Thy sculptured strength from that entanglement ; 

But thoughtful industry will tear the noose 

To shreds ; till when, thou 'rt bound, though discontent ; 

And thou mayest struggle vainly, seeking good 

Till death come with his gray, oblivious hood. 



PROLETARIAT 

But one thing ails thee, commoner distrest! 
Thy poverty! From that all miseries creep; 
The rest were paltry, easy to arrest, 
Wouldst thou but penury's iron fence o'erleap ; 
Hast thou no friends? Good money friends would buy ; 
No talent? Gold would quite replenish wit; 
No beauty? Costly raiment would deny 
Thine ugliness, where coarse but strengthens it; 
Art sad? Lean poverty hath no resource; 
Art mad ? No vengeance can the beggar take ; 
Art sick ? Good medicine flies to a purse ; 
Art weary? Wealth can every task forsake. 
Go heal thy pocket ! Wisely use thy wage ; 
So canst thou surely every woe assuage. 

52 



HINDvS 

A grimy dwarf-folk at the forge of deeds, 
Despised and cuffed, befouled with sweat and dirt, 
Have toiled with horny hands and loins ungirt 
Through painful centuries for scanty meeds. 
Their bended backs have felt the scourge, and beads 
Of blood have dripped from harsh slave-masters' hurt, 
Yet plodding they could ne'er their task desert 
To get release from lowest primal needs. 
Scholars and kings and captains famed in fights 
Have deemed that welfare of themselves was bom, 
And seen with dour neglect the toilsome wights 
Whose needful labors touched their taste to scorn ; 
But graces, muses, warriors, wits combined, 
Without these dwarf-folk boors had caught but wind. 



53 



Vulcan 



55 



MACHINERY 



Briareus! Thou hundred-handed gnome, 
Best offspring of man's brain, his drudge all days, 
Rough nurse to young toil in his lowly home, 
Thy tireless strength and brazen voice amaze! 
Saviour of serf and slave art thou, and all 
Who in the frost of shivering want are chilled ; 
Whom apish ignorance and fear appal, 
Are by thy products taught, caressed, and filled. 
What heroes' arms, what martyrs' blood, what art. 
Learning, and laws had striven in vain to give. 
Thy hands with easy power to man impart 
Abundance, leisure, freedom, zest to live. 
Preachers could prose, and poets potter in vain, 
But thou dost fill and drive a high-piled wain ! 

II 

Thy fortunes, O Democracy the great ! 
Are bolted to machinery's whirling arms, 
Whose tireless flying fingers liberate 
Thy feeble limbs from toil's consuming harms; 
Machinery with its rigorous discipline 
Drills to precision labor's soldiery; 
The meagre dues of handcraft doth resign 
For speed of steam-craft whose rewards are high ; 
How manhood grows where glides the piston rod ! 
Whirr! Buzz! Roar! In sawmill, thresher, dynamo. 
In loom, forge, printing-press! Could any god 
Across poor earth with fuller gift-hands go? 
Let tired millions tossing hats in air 
Shout on its royal progress everywhere ! 

57 



SOCIALISM 

The half-world famished wails its toilsome path ; 

Greedy of goods with tempting pleasure rife, 

Masses contend like lowing bulls in strife 

With glowering eyes and clashing horns of wrath ; 

Each poor man claiming what a richer hath, 

And blaming partial gods that put a knife 

To one's young throat, and others grant long life, 

Would treat flush rivals to a bloody bath. 

But naught 't would boot were each day's products shared 

Among producers on terms brotherly ; 

Still would the clamors of sharp want be heard 

'Mid the sparse yields of present husbandry. 

Naught can assuage the clamorous wants of all 

But larger yields from factory and stall. 



CUPID AND VULCAN 

Poets sing hymns to love, — love fond and deep, 
As man's redeemer who could right all wrong 
By making him a creature sweet and strong, 
His cruel instincts crooned to cradlc-slccp ; 
Yet mark they no clear path by which to creep 
From gnawing selfishness unpitying, long, 
To the fine idyl of love's rapturous song, 
Save that by loving, love to power shall leap; 
But love is aye a child and delicate. 
Craves body's weal and cannot live when bruised 
Where aching hunger makes men desperate, 
Or aching flesh of killing cold 's misused; 
So villein Vulcan first must Cupid house 
Ere he can kindle his divine carouse. 

S8 



EZEKIEL 

Had'st thou prevision, oh thou flaming sccr! 

In thy wild dream of whirhng "wheels in wheels," 

(Which mystery in a darker mystery seals,) 

Of latter days when wiser men should gear 

Their fortunes to machineries and steer 

Toward plenty's day of God? Ah no! Who deals 

With thy enigmas but for spirit feels, 

And doth at creature comforts grandly sneer; 

Had the rapt visionary with saner views 

Disclosed what "spirit" in those wheels should dwell, 

He had not counselled temples to his Jews 

But swiftly-spinning factory-reels as well ; 

Good spindle-work liad saved the Hebrew state 

To thriving fortunes less disconsolate. 



THE LOCOMOTIVE 

Of old, great monsters bellowing frightful sounds 
And breathing flame from nostrils flery red 
Spread terror and smote coward people dead. 
Making a desert of their gruesome rounds. 
Now steel-mailed dragons, docile as good hounds, 
Snort steam and fire o'er leagues of iron bed. 
While flying on errands swift as swallows sped. 
Not breathing death nor hurt of baneful wounds. 
Ever these clanking monsters to and fro 
Roar through the continents with human spoil. 
Their might not direful, nor their ravin woe; 
But all enrichments gathered in their coil. 
This fire-eyed dragon in his burnished scale 
Kills countless miseries with his whirling tail. 

59 



THE FACTORY 

Clank most unbearable of whirling wheels! 

Walls most unbeautiful that make one sigh ! 

A dizzy maze of pulleys, belts, and reels, 

That wool or steel to crafty patterns ply ! 

Armies unarmed serve this bewildering gear, 

Sentries stand guard lest its swift work be marred; 

All cheery though their vigils be severe. 

Since sure their wage, from nature's freaks debarred. 

Their stint fulfilled, they swarm the doors like bees 

That in the flower-time spurn full parent hives; 

The streets and alleys choke like autumn leaves, 

On pleasure bent, — true end of human lives. 

Its prodigal dues this deafening factory yields 

In richer harvests than e'en fertile fields. 



REVEILLE 

What marshal drum-beat of mundane affairs 
That lull or swell the stress of human life 
Outbreaks in news-sheets that supplant mean cares 
With the vast rumor of man's earthly strife ! 
Following the noiseless sun the reveille rolls 
Round the large globe. There horrors groan, 
Mirth laughs, commerce, war, love, whate'er controls 
Man's life gets each a strident tone. 
Louder than Wagner's din of echoing strain. 
Shriller and grander, harsher, sweeter far 
Than trumpets, cymbals, flutes that wax or wane, 
Is man's wild clangor of law-molded war; 
And this resounding roll-call daily beat 
Discordant journals on each city street. 

60 



THE NEWSPAPER 

This crownless monarch, Czar of mob and mart, 

Whose trenchant words Hke well-aimed arrows fly, 

Piercing all souls with brilliant archery, 

Skulks in no fortress from mankind apart. 

Nor doth commands in secrecy impart ; 

Him every strange event from far and nigh, 

Each benediction, each catastrophe 

Concerns, with all that stirs the human heart. 

Never was autocrat to governed realm 

So open-eyed and -hearted as this Czar; 

Whom force, injustice, cruelties o'erwhelm, 

His palace doors forever find ajar. 

No guard of troopers doth his state require 

Whose throne is reason and the world's desire. 



MORSE'S TELEGRAPH 

"Attention, universe! By kingdoms right 
Wheel!" cried Morse exultant o'er his leagues of wire; 
A new field-marshal heralding, whose might 
Should order empires by a flick of fire ; 
Obedient continents he now commands ; 
With half a word the well-drilled globe constrains ; 
Kings, warriors, traders, to his master-hands 
Yield instant service ; no one him disdains ; 
The human mob is to an army drilled ; 
He keeps the nations' quick-step close inlocked; 
Precision reigns where late confusion filled 
The hemispheres, and tangled progress blocked; 
Blending their voices in one ringing cheer, 
Men come to love each other far and near 

6i 



Crafts 



63 



ELECTRICITY 

Mercurial sprite ! Whose doublings here and there 
Outpace the flash of thought, — all masterless, 
And though so masterful yet baffled where 
Some alien fibre may thy flight repress! 
What playful Puck art thou to trap and keep, 
That now the tough-grained oak with ease dost shiver, 
And now an unbridged air-space durst not leap, 
Balked like a warlock by a running river! 
To cure, then kill ; to dart a blinding streak, 
Then slip away like faith and leave no sign ; 
To jog in harness, then in frenzied freak 
Split trees to ribbons is thy way malign ! 
Yet oft this tricksy electricity 
Dances attendance on a little key. 



THE MODERN DANCE OF DEATH 

The ticker stamps its tape from ten to three 
With figures changeful as a rippling bay, 
While sanguine crowds hang o'er it tremblingly 
To make their hundreds, thousands, in a day; 
And to and fro the figures fluctuate 
In dizzy maze as any firefly's flight. 
To "shorts" and "longs" alike a tempting bait 
Could skill but once devise to strike it right; 
But some sly goblin ever whisks aside 
The golden chance which all are hot to gain, 
Till beggared, angered, heart-sore on the tide 
Of gamesters ruined, they drift down the main; 
This flitter-dance with demon witchery 
Tempts souls to earthly hell unceasingly. 
5 65 



THE LIGHT-HOUSE 

Fair Luna is to evening lovers dear, 
And to brown mariners her rimpled light 
Fai--silvering angry billows dark with night; 
But tickle is she over land and mere. 
The light-house less romantic may appear. 
But when coy Luna hides, still glances bright. 
Where black, uprising hordes of surges smite 
Imperilled navies with foreboding fear. 
For nature tricks her children endlessly, 
Betrays with beauty, and betrayed destroys; 
Till they, grown wary of her antics sly, 
Safeguard their steps, distrusting fair decoys. 
Yet harried ever, they must fend their way 
Against her treacheries every transient day. 



PLANET AND LANTERN 

High o'er the hill doth Jupiter display 
The nightly silver luminous and mild 
Of his imperial orb afar enisled 
In crystal aether, chained to solar sway ; 
But lo! Beneath his large, eternal ray, 
Tipping the wave crests as if Dian smiled, 
A ship's light glances o'er the waters wild. 
Brighter and larger than the planet's may. 
The ship's poor lamp has but an earthly date, 
Which makes that men will praise the heavenly sphere 
Neglecting that which most concerns their fate 
Though it guard life forefending dangers near. 
For men like children set their vagrant eyes 
On splendors distant and near goods disprize. 

66 



THE MARINER'S COMPASS 

How sees the eyeless needle of wan steel 

The feeble lustre of yon polar star, 

That it should point its meaning finger there, 

As having some enigma to reveal? 

With trembling constancy on every keel 

It holds its glimmering spear forever true. 

Changeless amid all changes of earth's crew, 

And 'mid all tempests to one duty leal. 

What cosmic currents its fine sense control 

To keep direction on the freest poise! 

Or has it something daintier than a soul 

And more responsive to the secret laws? 

Do forces that through its thralled atoms wave 

Hold man's profounder being as their slave? 



WOOD'S HOLL 

A bell rings out, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong. 
Across the darkling waters of the night. 
As were 't the death of some unhappy wight; 
Dolorous out-wails its iterate song. 
Now low, then loud, now rare, then fast and strong. 
Hath it some startling quest to expedite? 
Sounds it a call to conflagration bright 
That thus its peals reverberate so long? 
'T is but the bell-buoy swinging to and fro. 
Storm-driven the sailor hears its mournful tongue. 
That warns him off from some reef -girdled woe. 
Whose breakers else might his death dirge have sung. 
He hears and jams his helm about in time 
T' escape long silence in the sea-weed's slime. 

r,7 



POINT JUDITH 

The whistling buoy rocks on a lazy sea, 

And seldom blows its hoarsened, wordless note 

Monotonous as from a raven's throat; 

The lounging sailor hears it carelessly ; 

Anon a slow fog creeps along to be 

A blanket shrouding all sea-craft afloat. 

Till none knows whither drives his blinded boat; 

The whistle croaks, to be heard thankfully; 

A gale swoops down when night has fallen thick ; 

The surges clash with far- resounding shock; 

The anxious helmsman — now his ears are quick — 

Hearing that sea-crow on its dripping rock. 

Catches his breath, and blind with bitter spray 

Thinks of his children as he swirls away. 



THE MILLENNIUM 

Long dreamed the church of a millennium 
To fall abrupt from heaven ; but open eyes 
See it advancing in unscriptural guise 
Headed by men untonsured; without drum, 
Herald, or angel Gabriel does it come ; 
Its trump a whistle from steel machineries, 
Which keen inventors for mere gain devise. 
Oil-sprinkled by no priestly medium. 
It brings in plenty more than pieties, 
Short hours of labor, not long hours of prayer, 
Pleasures abundant, not austerities, 
And lives luxurious laughing at bleared care. 
Since easier toils an ampler substance win. 
Industrial bells millennial joy ring in. 

68 



Craftsmen 



69 



THE AMBULANCE 

The city pave re-echoes countless feet 
That haste all ways on various errand bent — 
A restless crowd, each lost in his intent, 
Counting as naught his fellows on the street ; 
When lo ! An ambulance with horses fleet 
And startling gong speeds by as it were sent 
A fast express to rescue some wretch spent 
By crime or accident or blistering heat ; 
And now what throng crowds close in sympathy 
With pitying face and eyes compassionate ! 
Until the sufferer on soft cushions lie 
And whirls away, they on his misery wait ; 
Such tender feeling in man's bosom springs 
To succor unbefriended sufferings. 



MANKIND 

How dear are men in their fantastic ways, 
Their passions, laughters, hatreds right and wrong; 
Their sinewy figures lusty, handsome, strong; 
Their quick flirtations and blood-curdling frays ; 
The bustling streets, the home of waifs and strays, 
Are made a picture changing all day long, 
Where lovely women light the common throng, 
And deeds heroic flash through common days. 
E'en crime, filth, cruelty — all sins enfleshed 
In living bodies have a subtle lure. 
Our mortal sympathies are so enmeshed 
We lose not fellowship with souls impure; 
And round the convict's neck some one throws arm 
With love's caress for pity of his harm. 

71 



THE MECHANIC 

The swart mechanic hath live days on earth, 

Where engines clatter, and machinery 

Brings the grand wonders of its arts to birth, 

Enlarging time's untiring novelty; 

Small is his house, but neighbors gather thick, 

Like blackbirds chattering in breezy flocks. 

Of strikes or wages, or how Tom and Dick 

Have won a fortune by their own shrewd knocks; 

Life's eager news flits like the flies through town, 

Where men concentre, and fresh works are seen. 

Where schemes buzz in the air, where trade and gown 

Learn a real world and what its actions mean; 

So is a pastime found in shop and street 

That stirs emotion and makes leisure sweet. 



THE ENGINE DRIVER 

Within his cab the engine driver stands 
Grimy and hale with nerve of tempered steel, 
The throttle lever near his well-trained hands, 
The air-brake ready to his thundering wheel ; 
Throbs his huge motor down the iron way ; 
His eye, unresting, scans the endless rail ; 
Watching the future through the livelong day 
Since him death shadows hot upon his trail; 
Swiftly he rounds a curve ; oh God ! just there 
An adverse train drives up his single track! 
One instant given, to save though by a hair 
The crowd of passengers behind his back; 
He sees himself or them the sacrifice, 
Then flings the throttle ere death glaze his eyes. 

73 



THE SWITCHMAN 

High in his noisy tower the switchman stands, 
Lord of the levers of compulsive fates, 
One forward bends, another backward brakes, 
Obedient to his rapid, careful hands; 
Below great trains rush roaring toward far lands, 
Express and local, passenger and freights. 
Nor noting where untouched of loves or hates 
He shunts as each time-table him commands. 
What issues hang upon his sure address ! 
One lever wrong, and sickening horrors fall. 
Where groans of mangled people in distress. 
Or fortunes wrecked and ruined lives appal ! 
But system on his hand her firm hand lays 
To guard the guardian of our threatened days. 



CUSTODES 

The large policeman of athletic form, 
Amid the hurrying throngs of mart and street 
Towers like an Amal, heeding sun nor storm, 
Hunts human monsters on his busy beat ; 
Like some horse-governing Achilles he 
Unwinds the tangled thick of fretting steeds, 
Guards timid beauty with calm chivalry. 
And nervous rustics on their business speeds; 
The thief he collars, and the rough he quells, 
Fells the assassin as he turns to flight; 
The small boy fearlessly with club compels, 
And scares the brown fruit-pedlar pale with fright; 
His Saul-like grandeur doth with strength adorn 
The highways where he succors wights forlorn. 

73 



THE FIREMAN 

I 

More glorious than a belted knight of old 
The fireman rides his steed of steel and flame 
'Mid coruscating showers of fiery gold 
Throwing a halo round his stalwart frame. 
In a wild gale of speed his horses whirl 
Towards the fierce conflagration, whose broad light 
Flares heavenward in far-dancing flames that hurl 
Black smoke against the stars of wide-eyed night. 
Then cool and wary, with the eager joy 
Of perfect courage disciplined to deed. 
He trains his nozzle where his foes destroy, 
Despising dangers that the general heed ; 
And laughs to see his crackling floods o'ercrow 
The demon fires that glare and writhe below. 

II 

Now hiss the angry flames like serpents red. 
Swifter than boas, than live asps more fell ; 
Within whose coils all living fall as dead. 
Whose den is as the pit of sulphurous hell ; 
But see ! Amid their darting tongues on high 
A child's frail form leans from the casement's square 
And screaming tosses its small arms awry, 
Escape cut off! Now what brave soul will dare? 
Lo ! The rash fireman, swinging by his hands. 
Springs from the cornice to the window's ledge, 
And swift within the burning chamber lands 
To seize the child upon destruction's edge ; 
To seize, spring, save from that hot-leaping death, 
While round him curls the fiery dragon's breath. 

74 



THE FIREMAN 

III 

Now blackened, scorched, and faint in pale distress 
He pitches forward in a comrade's arms. 
Who fears a hurt the hero '11 ne'er confess, 
And swiftly bears him from the reach of harms ; 
But in a hospital retired he moans 
For many a day delirious on his cot, 
Tosses with anguish piercing all his bones ; 
Yet healed at last forgets his gruesome lot. 
Then to his post restored stands sworn again, 
A doughty champion dauntless toward his foe, 
To battle for his fellows, might and main 
Against the deadly bale that wrought him woe ; 
So ever warring on that enemy 
With tireless courage runs swift life away. 

THE TEAMSTER 

Upon his box high-held the truckster sits, 
No charioted Mars more grandly bold, 
Reining his Percherons champing on their bits, 
And threatening all doth vilely swear and scold; 
The street is deafening with sharp-ringing wheels, 
With shouts of drivers, hoofs of steeds that leer. 
Straining ahead or lashing out their heels. 
While cool mid-air the teamster rules austere. 
His brawny arms half-bare, his open throat 
Red with exposure, veined and thick with force, 
His insolent head and lusty glance denote 
The easy master ready of resource ; 
The huge-limbed brutes held in his wilful hand 
May fret and fume but catch his least command. 

75 



THE FARMER 

"What soulless leagues stretch out the yeoman's earth, 

Void save of cattle, fowl, and silly sheep ! 

Where one poor household month and year must keep 

To plodding drudgeries seldom touched to mirth ; 

What meagre recompense rewards their worth ! 

Seed-time means toil and toil the grains must reap ; 

A stinted pleasure and an ox-like sleep 

Are slim returns for such a tedious hearth ; 

The well-groomed poet city-nursed and fine 

Sings of the rustic's joy in nature's bloom, 

Of birds and brooks and fields of com and wine, 

Ignoring his worn face and changeless doom ; 

To live sequestered from one's kind sums all 

The sorest ills can human soul befall. 



THE FRONTIERSMAN 

Frank, natural man, democracy's first son. 
In garb uncouth on body lean and tough, 
His boots and pistols, bowie-knife and gun 
Give him a name for reckless hands and rough ; 
What lusty courage doth his tanned skin hold ! 
What swift resource 'gainst nature or mean men ! 
What fresh romance of action swift and bold! 
What lawless hazards dared in many a den ! 
A terror of loud boasts, threats, blasphemy, 
Soil-stained, well-mounted from the mines he tears, 
His pockets full of gold-dust ; for one day 
With harpy-loves he revels, gambles, swears. 
Then rambles back, a beggar; such his lot, 
All drunk with life, till in some fight he 's shot. 

76 



THE COWBOY 

A centaur when in saddle, man and horse 

One animal with one swift eager will, 

Herding a thousand neat he spurs his course, 

Dividing, rounding, branding, corralling still ; 

By day he lightly holds his bridle rein, 

But what a ride when in the pitch-dark night 

The two-horned herd stampedes across the plain 

In one resounding thunder of blind fright ! 

No carpet knight then serves to turn their head, 

Where one false step may hurl his steed to earth 

Before their trampling hoofs, and leave him dead, 

A mass of quivering flesh, a carrion's worth; 

Yet like a cyclone whirling on he fares. 

Nor for such peril half a farthing cares. 



THE NEWSBOY 

Light-footed Ganymede, — the messenger 
Of men than gods Olympian more busy, — 
Our tattered newsboy keeps the town astir 
Crying his papers through its uproar dizzy; 
All deeds, all doctrines, all divisions lie 
In friendly contact tucked beneath his arm. 
While he with voice impartial bawls his cry, 
"Times, Tribune, Herald, World," — thought's latest swarm. 
One flaunts the victory of its party fights ; 
One moans defeat, and doth all flesh upbraid; 
One champions workmen, one new woman's rights; 
One preaches tariff, one the freest trade; 
The impartial newsboy sells at equal rates. 
Then scampers off to craps and gambling mates. 

77 



THE PLACER MINER 

Armed with a nozzle spouting geyser streams, 

The placer miner storms an ancient hill, 

Gores its stone flanks to glut his greedy dreams, 

And tears it like a cataract fierce of will. 

The shining gold — a flake amid the wreck — 

With guileful art he collars as it flies, 

That not escapes him any skulking fleck 

Eluding his detective, Mercury's eyes. 

And when his vans are stufted with culprit gold 

Arrested in his sluiceways like some knave, 

He hies him to the town where bought and sold 

Are myriad pleasures that his heart may crave. 

There herded with the world-enjoying great 

He chuckles o'er his league with golden fate. 



THE LABORER 

A much abused and ever toiling man 
Whose woes cry out on deaf neglectful fate. 
Who ever seems too early or too late — 
The laborer has been, since old earth began. 
Looking on others whose achievements span 
A larger arc, he doth them hard berate, 
In false belief that they their wishes sate 
Upon his toil ; so fights the greater man. 
But not with man, with Nature in his strife, 
'T is Nature's grudging makes him lean and sad ; 
She only with unmeasured wealth is rife. 
Alone can give him what he needs. When mad 
Let him rob her, as have the rich before. 
She can give all things, having all in store. 
7S 



THE COAL-MINER 

Was 't an abhorrent plot of jealous gods 

That piled the measures of industrial coal 

In sunless caverns deep, 'neath rock and sods, 

Where man must burrow like an eyeless mole? 

Hid from the cheer of Sol's all-beauteous day, 

In noisome galleries he plies his tool. 

Boring and blasting drives his fearful way. 

And earns his bread, though losing there his soul. 

A sickly lamp his gruesome toil illumes, 

Where deadly vapors from each rift exhale ; 

Explosions lurk in every chamber's fumes. 

Or roofs cave in and bury him in shale. 

Yet loves he oft his owlish industry, 

And finds good sunlight garish to his eye. 



SERVANTS 

Turmoil of servants like a windy sea. 
Turmoil of households like a wind-tossed bark, 
And in the turmoil clamorous misery, 
Domestic concord lost as Noah's ark. 
Yet were contentment but a menial stain 
On souls enslaved to unambitious fates 
Unworthy of our century's glorious gain. 
Nor stepping with its march toward great estates. 
Now doth the servant aim for better things. 
Tired of the toil and moil of ruder days, 
Finds pleasure also in the pheasant's wing. 
And like my lady loves the street's bright ways. 
Master and man together scale the slopes 
That mount to crests whence gleam high human hopes. 

79 



JOHNNIE RAGS 

Shirt, hat, and trowsers held by wooden pin 

To one suspender, runs about the street. 

Our " Black-yer-boots " and future citizen, 

His box beneath his arm, sole tool to meet 

All life's great needs; pale, smutted face, bold eyes, 

A voice as shrill and clear as any crow's. 

"Shine, boss?" he cries, and "No" received, he flies 

To some new passer; swift as paper blows. 

He has no home, nor any school attends. 

Sleeps 'neath a truck, eats when he gets the scot. 

And like an Arab heeds not where he wends. 

The heavens his tent ; such is his friendless lot. 

So grows to be a voter, low, untaught. 

And helps elect his sort, all friends! Why not? 



ORGAN GRINDER 

What strain of march, or waltz, or lovers' songs 
The soiled Italian flings abroad each day 
Beneath all skies, all weathers as he may, 
Rehearsing naught that to his life belongs ! 
His sad heart may be breaking with deep wrongs, 
His wife be dying, and his babes a prey 
To hunger's pangs ; still peals the roundelay 
In festal cadences to cheery throngs. 
" Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay " the music sings; 
"Per god — a penna — sare, — my wife-a die," 
Poor Beppo wails with intermingling psalm, 
Then to a tripping waltz his organ wrings. 
Street children dance about the tragedy 
Played in his heart behind a screen of calm, 

80 



THE TENEMENT 

As blue-winged swallows from their nests below 
The friendly covert of o'erhanging eaves 
Round rural stables swarm and overflow, 
Content while them a home of mud receives, 
So in the tenement do human broods 
Seek crowded shelter for themselves and young 
Rather than scatter through the leafy woods 
Where niggard nature but scant good has flung. 
The well thronged tenement gives company, 
Which many a prouder home doth sadly miss, 
And merrier children on its stairways play 
Than on wide fields 'mid nature's loneliness. 
Bam swallows chirp and bicker as they fly, 
These human swallows brawl as cheerily. 



DELMONICO'S 

Within, bright lights and flashing jewels play! 
Without, a cold wind rudely raked the street; 
Where in a grated arch, whence puffed spent heat, 
A newsboy wedged was sleeping as boys may ; 
With cameo face, some cherub-waif-and-stray. 
Like one of Raphael's angels pure and sweet, 
Unconcious on the gruff policeman's beat. 
As in the cosiest chamber, snug he lay; 
Tranquil his breathing, unconcerned and deep. 
Rosy his cheek as is th' auroral mom. 
And poverty, his tattered chamberlain, did keep 
His body harmless as a young prince bom ; 
So slept he in the arms of blustering night 
As one of fortune made the favorite. 
6 8i 



ORIENT AND OCCIDENT 

In dreams of dragons, colors, miracles. 

The East was nodding through somniferous hours, 

Devising porcelains, pictures, silks, and flowers. 

And grim austerities to save from hells; 

Comes the brisk West with breezy voice and tells 

Of miracles outdone by natural powers, 

Of quick release from present hells by hours 

With tools which uncomplaining steam compels; 

Breaks the new comer on the Orient's drowse. 

Troubling narcotic dreams and childish glees 

With fresh ambitions on earth's goods to browse 

And taste felicities that brains may seize ; 

And though the Orient lose some artist sense, 

It welfare gains in loss of impotence. 



THE TRAMP 

Betrayed by cozening nature who has made 

Him lazy without adding wealth, that he 

To get his living must make daily raid 

On strenuous labor, comes he tramp to be; 

His faded gannents tit him wretchedly, 

As whose would not, if gathered here and there — 

Cast-ofTs of small and tall, fat, lean, and wry? 

A scarecrow's plunder, elegance would swear. 

Were he but rich, he might the livelong day 

Beneath his own trimmed hedges lie, nor earn 

Contempt, sconi, obloquy, but now his way 

Is lined with foes — boys, dogs, and taunts that bum. 

Yet all he bears if he may slaver}' shirk 

Nor spoil his leisure with a menial's work. 

82 



SAMOANS 

Sons of hot tropics naked of disguise 
Stretch their large limbs on platted mats of palm 
Beneath the cocoanut thatch, and feel no qualm 
That lapsing time unused on swift wing flics; 
Doth strenuous nature them so highly prize 
That she provides their bread and brawny ease 
On the surf-girdled isles of thunderous seas 
Where grow self-raising fruits like paradise? 
Their rippled shoulders swell with virile force, 
Their mighty limbs betoken animal pleasure; 
Their eyes untroubled, and unfurrowed brows, 
Hint of life's gladness quaffed at primal source; 
Do anxious we transgress calm nature's measure, 
Who seek delight in labor or carouse? 



Property 



85 



PLUTUS 

Plutus had frigid service in the Pantheon 

Of sun-crowned gods that on Olympus dwelt, 

Disdained for grander deities, who won 

Allegiance from more worshippers, that knelt 

To cloudy Jove, sweet Venus, or fierce Mars; 

Their shrines with many a gift were sued. 

While Plutus, shining weakly 'mid such stars, 

Had victims scant for his beatitude ; 

But those crowd-reverenced gods, in latter days. 

Have paled their haloes in forgetfulness, 

Stript of their honors through time's changeful ways, 

While Plutus doth the thronged Exchange possess; 

For golden ingots Plutus bears in hand, 

And throned as money takes Jove's old command. 



PLUTUS AS JOVE 

Strongest of gods and yet the most abused, 
Plutus rules men in his indifferent way, 
Taking no counsel of grave wits or gay, 
His power like gravitation all-diffused ; 
Forever regnant, oft his strength misused. 
He handles human lives with tyrannous sway. 
Asking no worship, careless who gainsay. 
Or what fine morals, names, or nations be contused; 
Who spurn his sceptre only bruise their heel, 
Though men, the noblest, shout them loud applause ; 
At every turn they shall his godhood feel 
Baffled and wounded by his trenchant laws; 
And though men call on other deities 
They all mean him who most of wants supplies. 

87 



MAMMON 

God of this world as Mammon stigmatized ! 
Thy glittering face and glorious works disclose 
Th' all-powerful lord of heathen and baptized 
Wherever men o'er brute conditions rose ; 
Who scout thy name still at thine altar kneel ; 
Who scorn thy greatness at thy feet bow down ; 
Thine absence sages mourn, and king's thrones reel 
Before rich upstarts who have filched thy crown; 
Cowled priests declaim against thee, yet outstretch 
Their consecrated palms for gleaming gold ; 
Thy frown can make the happiest a wretch. 
Thy smile bring honor, love, and friends untold ; 
Hypocrisy feigns scorn to acknowledge thee, 
With lighter scorn thou see'st him at thy knee. 



WEALTH 

True motor of all progress, magic tool. 
Wealth stirs the deserts to an April bloom. 
Covers with conquering ships the seaways cool. 
Plants princely cities where furred brutes had room ; 
The subtile Greek it trained to wondrous arts; 
To mighty Rome, transformed a robbers' den; 
Where wild men in thick jungles slung their darts, 
Made footpaths highways, footpads gentlemen; 
It lifts mankind to every high emprise, 
Makes brotherhoods of nations battle-fain, 
Fosters fine letters till the dunce grows wise, 
Enlarges love till e'en sect-hatreds wane; 
And that man-eating tiger, penury 
Slinks cowed before it to his lair to die. 

88 



THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL 

Want of good money, of all evil root, 

Lures men to shames and crimes of blackest dye, 

Makes pirate, burglar, forger, prostitute, 

And tempts the good to basest treachery; 

Want sells fresh maids to hated lovers old. 

Nerves the assassin to his bloody rage; 

Emboldens liars to treasons manifold ; 

Robs helpless orphans of their heritage ; 

Want sells the politician's vote for cash, 

And private honor sells for public blame ; 

The judge's ermine with foul stains doth plash ; 

And all that wealth can give for wealth will shame ; 

For want of money is a ravening wolf 

That balks at nothing in its maw's behoof. 



TEMPLE AND TRAFFIC 

In vain men cry to blessed saint and shrine ! 

In vain beg benediction from the air ! 

These nothing to their sobbing vows consign; 

They starve, they drown, they ache, and they despair; 

But shrineless Traffic leads his flock to wealth ; 

Gives them long life and fatness of the earth. 

Clubs, motors, hospice, travel, means to health. 

Good roads and railways, books and social mirth; 

Therefore fair temple! they do well who turn 

To worldly markets from thy barren fane ! 

They gain a heritage and good days earn, 

They pass through life most happy, useful, sane ; 

And dead they rest in high-piled haughty tombs 

And none can prove they meet tmhappy dooms. 



ST. FRANCIS 

Most wanton of all vows is this 

That weds to poverty the novice, who 

Without such vow can silently pursue 

That tramp so cheap and old ; her blistering kiss 

Stings all our lips except a few whose bliss 

But makes the general lot a greater rue ; 

To vow one's life to wealth were task more true, 

Since wealth asks toil, of weal the genesis ; 

Untonsured drones are never dubbed to saints. 

And why should tonsured win an aureole ? 

Not drones but delvers lessen life's constraints ; 

Wealth-makers better fill his saintship's role; 

Her beggar's skinny hands o'er most of folk 

Wan Poverty extends ; contemn her yoke ! 



MERCURY 

The god of thieves was wind-winged Mercury, 
And god of traders too mid Rome's stout folk, 
As if those bloody robbers could not brook 
To honor theft save made with butchery ; 
So soon was gentle commerce held to be 
Less noble than grim war's all-murderous stroke, 
To slay one's fellows grander than work's yoke, 
As still's believed mid spangled soldiery; 
His simian brain so long mankind misleads 
On its long march in search of human good 
That plundering earls get more for plundering deeds 
Than laboring churls for leagues of ripening food; 
But now that wars consent of bankers crave. 
Mercury shows Mars to be a swaggering knave. 

90 



CAPTAINS TWAIN 

War-captains countless have been loudly hailed 

Who left pale heaps of dead upon the plain, 

And clamorous history cheers the dreadful bane 

Of their deeds called sublime even when they failed; 

But better captains of trade's ranks unmailed 

Whose conquests brought man affluence with their gain, 

Guiltless of orphan, and war's bloody stain, 

As rogues and soulless Shylocks are assailed. 

These add abundance to the human dower 

And heap the world's chest with life-cheering wealth ; 

Where drought did parch, their genius brings a shower; 

Where Generals blighted, they bring general health; 

Why "Ave Ccesar" to bad Captain Raid 

But "rogue and robber" to good Captain Trade? 



CAPITAL 

A mountain tarn, beneath whose darksome face 
The silenced rills of many a rivulet hide, 
Reveals not how its waters pour their tide 
Through city streets and burghers' homes apace; 
So is a hoarded wealth, whose glittering grace 
May gild one family's o'er-weening pride, 
A reservoir, whose far-off outflows glide 
Through countless households of the populace. 
Down every human haunt they ripple and sing 
Coursing the iron mains of enterprise, 
Refreshing rills of wage to labor bring, 
To fainting industry renewed supplies. 
Ungathered into lakes of cumulate force 
Those paltry rills had run a paltry course. 

91 



ENTERPRISES 

Absorbed in plans the chief of great affairs 

Scarce feels he lives, so is engrossed his mind ; 

He little recks of man or woman-kind, 

And much is pitied as o'erwhelmed with cares; 

But he like bright Apollo onward fares 

Guiding the flaming steeds of crescent day, 

Whose traces draw upon its gleaming way 

Success's golden car up heaven's stairs ; 

Himself as charioteer who shakes the reins 

And lashes forward that unbroken team, 

Glad of the mastery his hand retains, 

Doth not a moment of real hardship dream ; 

When headlong dashed he still hath made his race; 

If master, always like a star his face. 



THE ROGUE 

Mark well the rogue ! His smooth, unfaltering tongue, 
His innocent smile, his speech that naught denies, 
His nimble fancy quick with truth and lies, 
His changeless cheek to blushes never stung; 
He squanders flatteries and favors flung 
Profusely round thick as July flings flies, 
Aladdin tales, Munchausen prophecies, 
And virtue's praise by snatches loudly sung; 
He thinks — poor fool ! to cozen laws as well 
As men ; cheat nature to forego her pains ; 
To win by fraud 'gainst cards of fact, and sell 
His gilt for gold ; then when despoiled of gains 
And in the gutter rolled by angry fate 
Gnashes on truth that him doth macerate. 

ga 



HOMESTEAD 

Now on the golden shield of capital 

The roundhead Labor with unknightly sledge 

Rings an intrepid challenge tragical 

To battle for a prize of greater wage ; 

Rides forth Sir Capital with anxious grace 

Himself at deadly risk of losing all, 

Defies his scowling challenger, must face 

The mad kern down or ruin both will gall; 

Finds his antagonist a tedious foe, 

Untrained to arms but muscled well and tough. 

Unapt to flinch though cold and want bring woe, 

While wife and children give him wrath enough ; 

The battle ended neither side has won; 

Both finish poorer, heart-sore, spent, undone. 



STRIKES 

Redeemers ghostly have mankind adored 
Who promised them release from swarming woes: 
Confucius, Buddhas, Christs, Mahomets, — those 
Who thought by teaching bliss could be restored; 
Yet through man still sharp misery thrust his sword, 
When from the masses a new champion rose — 
Rough, noisy, stalwart, showering angry blows. 
And crying "Fight for wage! swell labor's hoard!" 
Fired by his words men rallying fiercely iought 
To win release through wages from duress. 
Shoulder to shoulder ranked their files and brought 
The averted world to admire their steadfastness; 
Yet want still haunts the striker's starving brood — 
Larger production only can his woes preclude. 

93 



CULPA 

Released by wealth from struggles all severe 

For mere subsistence, gilded youth forsake 

The thoughts and toils that did their affluence make, 

And to distempered sports give time and ear; 

So leave the masses to old miseries drear, 

Nor lend the costlier training of their mind 

To solve hard problems for the dull and blind, 

But rather scorn them as beneath their sphere. 

Far better were it, would they but devote 

Their easier lives to man's distressed estate, 

Thinking for masses they beneath them note, 

With helpful pity for their battered fate. 

But schooled in games they now too often muss 

Man's sober questions when they them discuss. 



THE SPECULATOR 

Man of a prophet's foresight most maligned, 
And like all prophets scorned as profitless, 
Who rather looks before him than behind, 
He finds his pleasure in a studied guess. 
The slow-worm seeing his fantastic mind 
Looks as an ass upon the panther's spring. 
And laughs within his stupid brain to find 
One so uncertain, risky, wandering; 
Till when the speculator bold succeeds, 
And counts his skekels where himself counts pence. 
Then "thief and pirate" bawls, nor ever heeds 
That foresight's fulness gives lean sloth offence. 
Loud laughs Success elate with his delights, 
And snaps his fingers at cross envy's wights. 

94 



THE CAVALIER 

Notes of romance about the cavalier 
Play like bird-songs round yeoman at the plough 
In fresh-turned furrows, giving his career 
A graceful charm, which wins us even now 
'Gainst roundheads rude, whose austere discipline 
Bore down nice dukes and princes, and brought life 
To coarser commons; worth out-battled wine, 
Sad Cromwells foiled gay Ruperts in the strife. 
For those flush king's-men bright with madrigals 
And flowing ringlets, perfumed, airy, brave, 
Caught on the swords of fierier principles. 
With their false sovereign found a bloody grave ; 
Minstrel, fine nobles, and silk-stockinged court 
Yield place in battle to the ironside sort. 



95 



Sport 



97 



KINGS' REVIEWS 

Kings parade their soldiery for brother kings, 

As brindled tigers at their fellows smile 

Baring their threat of gleaming teeth, the while, 

For cheer or menace in their junketings ; 

Pompous their rifled ranks, — these underlings 

Glittering like myrmidons in polished file, 

Though much like playthings for a juvenile, 

And barely civil when one thinks of things; 

Such is the foppery of the childish earth, 

That scarcely yet men see the ampler strength 

And larger empire that would come to birth 

Where workmen trained, not warriors; then at length 

Warriors would show like tawdry harlequins, 

Or droop-mouthed bloodhounds mid clean citizens. 



YACHTING 

What frolic pleasure in the hollow sides 
Of a trim yacht may find its costly home ! 
Its wings outspread on any breeze to roam 
Towards any coast swept by th' alternate tides; 
Who to her keeping his stout soul confides 
Drinks airy gladness in the blown sea-foam. 
And nightly arch of heaven's star-spangled dome, 
While she on yeasty billows dips and rides ; 
And when a captive to freebooter gales 
She whirls away to unknown waters cast, 
While the gray master's cunning scarce avails 
To keep her sea-way mid the surges vast, 
Still will the yachtsman in his riotous fight 
Scarce envy landsman safe, though dire his plight. 

99 



BASEBALL 

In Caesar's Rome they glowered on that fell game 

Where Gaul and Goth hacked till red life-blood flowed, 

And o'er the butchery in mad pleasure glowed 

With thumb averted e'en the vestal dame ; 

Now toward the diamond, not for gore aflame. 

Our crowding citizens take the dusty road, 

Nor praise dishonor though defeat should goad, 

But each foul play of either team will blame ; 

'T is but a lightning ball from pitcher's base 

To batsman flung with twisted cunning sly ; 

A club that flashes, then a headlong race. 

While wild hurrahs from throats ten thousand cry; 

The tiger dies from hearts where tradesmen rule, 

Though growling still where war-lord monarchs fool. 

THE BOAT RACE 

New London, 1892 

Eight brawny athletes stripped to nature's bufE, 

More like Rome's gladiators than students pale, 

Sit in a light shell flagged for alma Yale 

To row eight muscled Harvards of like stuff; 

Swift at the word their oars the waters cufif. 

And bend as one their sun-tanned bodies hale 

To lusty strokes, that make an ashen gale. 

Hurling thin prows through waters smooth and rough ; 

Then to and fro their shoulders flash like steel ! 

One thought, ambition, purpose all controlling, 

They hotly urge the wave-dividing keel 

Mid maddening cheers and cannons' boom on-rolling; 

Yale's swinging stroke is crowned with fresher bay. 

While Harvard falters sore with new dismay. 



FOOTBALL 

Unblushing crowds, of college youth the flower, 
Steeped in the culture of our generous day. 
Gather to see the football's fearful play, 
Where gentles throng — barbarians for the hour. 
Eleven champions, shag-haired and dour, 
Striding colossal to the perilous fray 
Pit blue 'gainst yellow and black with ardor gay 
To prove their prowess in the crashing stour. 
Now range these athletes up; one rending shout 
Cheers the young giants to the lusty fight; 
Now back, now forward sways the writhing rout 
Tho' wounds and death mix in the test of might; 
Then who too gentle not to blow his horn 
When fluttering fortune puts one team to scorn? 



THE BICYCLE 

A curious toy born of the children's play. 

Skimming as swiftly as the swallow flies, 

Steals on the world unlauded of the wise. 

Unheralded, unvaunted, silently; 

Its balanced wheel man's radius amplifies, 

His social state expands in large array, 

Makes to good neighbors souls remote and stray. 

And with fresh thought through lonely hamlets hies. 

The clownish circle of sequestered swains 

It vivifies to clubs of social youth. 

Who loosed from bondage to their ox-drawn wains 

May meet and hear the later redes of truth ; 

And highways smoothed for their fleet journeying 

The round globe with new friendship will enwring. 



Virtues' Vices 



103 



CIRCE 

That Circe, Beauty, having charms enthralling, 
O'erpowers the enchanted world with spells so strong 
That like the drunken, men though suffering long 
Reel round her lovely feet with pains appalling, 
For pictures, statues, temples, ever calling, 
While bread, homes, garments, comfort still they lack, 
And lacking perish, stretched on want's tough rack, 
Unwitting what doth make life's trip so galling; 
So Phidias, Raphael, Rembrandt looked around 
Upon a ruck of wolves, goats, foxes, swine. 
That fought and wallowed, while fair art was crowned ; 
So drugged were men with Beauty's mantling wine; 
Yet still for Beauty's dizzy witcheries 
They give their honor, riches, virtues, lives. 



ECONOMY 

Nursed at the dugs of poverty, the scant. 
Uncertain fount of nature, grudging crone! 
And nipped in many a blight of famine gaunt, 
Man's much -maltreated tribes make plaintive moan. 
And seek in parsimony a refuge sore 
From dreaded stringencies that may assail; 
Paring some pittance from their daily store 
To hoard for straits when 'customed incomes fail; 
So pinch the hungry flanks of life, and shrivel 
Wan faces to worse-wrinkled misery ; 
And shrink their little to less by that mean drivel, 
Where larger outlay larger gains would buy. 
Not sparing but wise spending sows the seed 
Of harvests growing to fruitage beyond need. 

105 



CONSCIENCE 

A scowling tyrant oft is Conscience, who 

Will drone dull vetoes as from angry skies 

That learning, lavighter, love, and change taboo 

In favor of tradition's fantasies. 

He glues the savage to his fetish -creed, 

The Hindoo to his castes of various hate, 

The Moslem to Mahomet's sterile screed; 

Makes bigot, dunce and tory reprobate ; 

Oft drags to jail minds pleading to be free; 

Bludgeons bold reason with the clubs of fear; 

Handcuffs invention as his enemy, 

And thumbscrews virtue with an unctious leer; 

His voice is wrinkled custom's mumbling cry 

Stifling the sweet babe's voice of novelty. 



DUTY 

How often Duty like a falcon fierce 
Stoops down on Pleasure trimmed in plumage gay 
And rends her beauteous gauds all furiously. 
While to the heart his merciless beak doth pierce! 
Then with a strident voice infuriate 
He screams harsh orders, which whoe'er obey 
Will fall to black despondency a prey. 
And curse bleak life with unrelenting hate. 
The lissom dance and music's gleeful strain. 
Love's fiery yearning, field-sport's manly strife, 
The drama's recreation, all have lain 
In Duty's talons bleeding out their life ; 
So when this falcon screams his savagery, 
As birds from hawks, to Castle Joyance fly ! 
1 06 



IKON 

"'T is love that makes the world go round!" cry some 

Brave poets lost in fools' felicities ; 

A rougher despot hath this world to please 

Whose strident voice shouts courteous gallants dumb; 

Its charioteer is no curled lover come 

With dalliance sweet and thrilling minstrelsies, 

But whip-in-hand with autocrat decrees, 

That lightly reck of love's delirium. 

His name? Necessity! Whistles his lash 

O'er lovers all, that bids them dance his tune, 

Turn sailors, traders, soldiers for bare cash ; 

Blows bickering March through lovers' balmy June. 

His are the hands that drive the steeds of fate 

Knouting mankind to toils inveterate. 



CELIBACY 

Pale, bloodless daughter of ungenerous reins, 
Whose dry defiance to flush nature's fires 
Hath caught men's whimsy spite the fact that sires 
Of ruddier hue gave each his flesh and veins! 
What freakish craze is that which chaunts the strains 
Of laud to bare negation of desires 
As pleasing God whose lusty world aspires 
To swarm with life, — life that of death complains! 
Yet church and state have crowned thy flowerless snows 
With solemn consecrations, idle saint! 
As were thy barrenness some precious rose 
Of worth because without love's luscious taint. 
But nature thy sterility abhors 
And rather gloats o'er ways of sensual boors, 

107 



TROY AND TO-DAY 

As great Achilles won the highest fame 

By slaying glorious Hector spent with fight, 

And dragging his dead body, without shame, 

Around Troy's walls, within his townsmen's sight, 

While they grief-smitten wailed most bitterly ; 

So is it oft upon the plains of life 

Chief aim and triumph of man's industry 

To kill his foe and drag him from the strife 

Dishonored, soiled with dust before the eyes 

Of friends and lovers torn with grief who wail. 

Victors with swelling words their crime disguise, 

Jeering at pity with their ruffians' tale ; 

Then babbling ages hymn the braggart's praise 

Though he have slain the glory of his days. 



xo8 



vices' Virtues 



109 



SELFISHNESS 

Thou sneaking pick-purse of the social state 
That loiterest everywhere with outheld dish, 
Intent on alms or stealings, bread or fish. 
Engorging all that comes, or soon, or late! 
Thou art a poor blind, fool insatiate 
Who makest a world averted to thy wish. 
And gracious men toward thee but winterish ; 
Thy shrewd disguise serves but a short-lived date! 
One thing thou doest of nature's prime behest, — 
Thyself thou keepest from complete decay ! 
Self-preservation — law of worst and best — 
Thou guardest well and so securest thy day ! 
But who would thrive, on that large plan will live 
Which for all good received as good will give. 



SELF-INTEREST 

A busy craftsman and Prometheus-wise 
Is keen self-interest that most sharply sees 
To its own welfare, and then well contrives 
Arts to attain it ! Yet what hypocrisies 
Play hide and seek this schemer to conceal. 
As were he quite disgraceful, protests loud 
Disclaim his clever guidance into weal, 
As were he craftsman better disavowed! 
But large self-interest is the shrewdest fool 
That can direct the steps of blundering man ; 
Though oft misleading still he knows his goal, 
Toils late and early to make good his plan ; 
Who rides without this leader for his course 
Risks wild disasters to himself and horse. 



SLANDER 

Thou hast been hated as a poisonous snake, 

A coiled, malignant rattler, quick to strike, 

To every hateful impulse still awake. 

That sparest no virtue, no good deed belike. 

But thou art often as a hornet keen, 

Whose buzzing flight acts as perpetual threat 

To keep sly feet from straying when unseen 

Towards paths of ill that aching griefs beset. 

A lurking spy, fear of whose guile forbids 

From boding ventures whence mean tongues might wag 

To poison reputation earned with pains, 

And open eyes whose watchfulness might lag. 

Too oft indeed thou workest deadly ill, 

As drugs that cure, too freely taken, kill. 



ENVY 

A passion much abhorred for hideous ill. 

Whose hand doth stitch a curious-mottled thread 

Into life's fabric, spun of thoughts that kill. 

And broideries of guilty line blood-red 

Is envy ; yet its angry, murderous spleen 

Oft kicks the leaden-witted clown to rouse 

And win the goods that stirred his hatred keen, 

Dragging to honors from his broken drowse ; 

Was 't not the laurels of Miltiades 

Whose rustling galled, e'en when he fain had slept, 

That man colossal, Greek Themistocles, 

Till he the Persians from blue sea had swept? 

Sooth ! without envy men might be as slow 

As fat, homed snails to gird their loins and go. 



EXTRAVAGANCE 

Free, silk-clad roysterer — distrusted sore 

By men too miserly, who late have found 

Thy lavish ways to be the key and door 

To larger wealth — thou scatterest the ground 

With germs of arts, inventions and all seeds of life! 

How has the open radiance of thy face 

Been scowled on by grim sages ever rife 

With envious sneers against thy liberal grace ! 

Day laughs before thee, and beneath thy hand 

The fields wax fertile; towns grow loud and thrive; 

The hut dilates to palace, and void land 

To human marts with bustling men alive. 

Plenty, which swollen Nile to Egypt lends. 

Thy prodigal floods oft bring to enrich thy friends. 



REVENGE 

Darkest of all the fiends that work to shape 

The fashion of the world's face so austere. 

Art thou, O fell Revenge ! too fain to drape 

In justice' stainless mask thy scowl severe. 

Doubtless thy snaky locks and maniac glare 

Have faltered rogues and frosted budding crimes. 

When desperate ruffians, whom no law could scare. 

Had else unleashed black horrors on the times. 

Man, hulking animal and Caliban, 

Like the gorilla framed, compact of mud, 

Not easily is bred to gentleman, 

Save his boor's temper first with spears be cowed. 

But black Revenge with savage heart to kill 

Blenches with terror his bloodthirsty will, 

8 113 



AVARICE 

A fine, old-gentlemanly vice, whose turn 
For solvency doth gild its hardness bright; 
Nor is it foreign to a kind conccni 
For others' good, and has some notions right. 
Not quite a flower, perhaps, nor yet all weed ; 
Since in its well-stored granaries men find 
Seed for new harvests and a store to feed 
Young enterprise. 'T were well to be assigned 
As infant to some family tree which counts 
One dreadful miser in its ancestry. 
Whose parsimony left some large amounts 
For his far-off descendents' wealth to be. 
So might one have advantage in two kinds — 
Of avarice dead, and liberal living minds. 



HATRED 

" Love all men ! " cries the creed, but hatred knows 
A part to play mid tortuous affairs. 
That nerves the will to greater things than prayers 
When evil men and evil deeds oppose. 
'T were a sad world, were all the telling blows 
Left for the bad to strike, while goodness stares, 
And to the foe its smitten cheek still bares, 
Till evil throw its body to the crows. 
But hatred double-shots his guns, and fires 
To kill his enemies, both man and cause, 
To bury fathoms deep them and their ires. 
Or with a scowling brow their threats o'erawes. 
Shielded by Ajax Teucer shot his bow — 
Oft virtue must use hatred's valor so. 

114 



GREED 

A thirst for gain will sometimes parch a soul 

Till, like Sahara 'neath the Afric sun, 

'T is burned to arid waste, where flourish none 

Of human virtues; truth nor love control. 

Nor groweth any fruit that men extol. 

Therefore from good Saint Paul hath sharp greed won 

111 name as "root of evil" where begun; 

Which doth the lazy for greed's gains console. 

Yet greed doth spur to vast activity. 

Whirls laggard axles to a smoking speed, 

Spreads bellying canvas on the farthest sea, 

And saddles thought to serve complaining need. 

Where none are greedy, no one moves on want 

To drive that lean marauder from man's haunt. 



THE GAMBLER 

A pirate well disguised mid fleets that ply 
With precious merchandise from port to port, 
That spreads his snares with guileful industry. 
Is the sleek gambler ruthless in his sport. 
Forlornest creature that breathes wholesome air, 
A social Ishmael, his selfish hand 
'Gainst every man is lifted, foul or fair. 
To him all friendship is a rope of sand ; 
Like the still pike mid minnows in a lake, 
He feigns to drowse as if indifferent ; 
Then sudden like a javelin darts to take 
Some vagrant fool on vacuous errand bent. 
No comrade for his ruin ever weeps. 
Nor grieves a mourner when his false soul sleeps. 

"5 



DIVORCE 

How harsh a discord, as of dog and bear 
Tied by one galling cord within a ring, 
Is that of man and wife whose daily fare 
Is bread and wine of strife embittering ! 
Love soured to hate is such acute displeasure 
As cannot bide in cool indifference. 
But frets and chafes against the quondam lover 
Till even endearments kindle fresh ofifence. 
But dog and bear given unrestrained release 
Go each his rambling way in carelessness ; 
So these twain severed frisk in jocund peace, 
Like singing jongleurs 'scaped from sour duress. 
Life has too many thorns of nature's rearing 
For laws to add a new one past all bearing. 



THE WIT OF WEALTH 

Quick praise gets wit when its surprises flash 
Like a keen sword-blade whirled in jovial play 
To light a table whose replete array 
Assures the speaker's amplitude of cash ; 
But when ill-clad wit snaps his dangerous lash 
The dull pretentiousness of fools to flay, 
A scurvy welcome meets his bright display, 
Where shallow coxcombs every sally dash ; 
And if more genial be wit's merry vein, 
Neglected laughs its penniless, beaming face, 
Where half a jest from Midas' starveling brain 
Provokes a laughter would fresh woe erase ; 
The wit of Midas glitters with his gold 
Where wit ungilded gets a north wind cold. 
ii6 



IGNORANCE 

ANNO DOMINI lOOO 

When dead low tide has left sea beaches bare, 
And ragged rocks deformed with smearing ooze, 
Mud-stranded barks their watery freedom lose 
Careened mid sea-fronds rotting in the air; 
What frowzy look the littered beaches wear 
Strown with torn shells which lazy waves refuse, 
And gray-green rushes moldy with salt dews ! 
Such were the days — days of unclean despair — 
When science's sparkling tides had ebbed away 
And left man sprawling in slug-harboring mire 
Befouled with filthy superstition's spray; 
While half-drowned reason gasped 'mid refuse dire, 
And minds were smothered 'neath the bitter slime 
That else had flashed like sunbursts o'er their time. 



WELT-SCHMERZ 

One cry of ages is a note of woe. 
Both man and animal have faces sad, 
Since battered of rough nature did all go 
Till nimble- witted men learned laughter glad; 
Which waxeth to a fashion now apace, 
Till gleams of frequent merriment will run 
Through most transactions of the Aryan race. 
Gilding e'en sombre arts with sparkling fun. 
The bright Caucasian so has changed his look 
From sombre masks of aborigines 
He seems not of the same ancestral stock, 
By crinkling laughter raised to gay degrees. 
For man's primeval visage of despair 
Grows debonair when comfort strokes his hair. 

117 



Philosophy 



119 



PHILOSOPHY 

High substitute for faith, thy genial strain 

Can deeply solace sore humanity, 

Amid the falling of the bitter rain 

That beats oft harshly on all Hves that be. 

The gusts of passion dost thou check with smiles, 

With hopes dost smooth the wrinkled brow of care, 

With humor bafHe folly's tedious wiles 

And enmities disarm with gracious air! 

Thou, lofty friend of man with mien elate! 

The peace of sanguine' strength dost give to me, 

Assuaging grief 'mid fortunes desperate, 

And showing sunshine o'er a stormy sea. 

Thy tranquil eyes restore my courage when 

My small world goes awry amidst of men. 



SIN'S SIN 

If to indulge the love of sin be sin. 

Then am I sin's most helpless bounden slave ; 

For though I sin not, yet I would not win 

Full victory o'er the wish to misbehave; 

But if to fight loved sin be virtue's crown, 

Then am I laurelled with her fullest leaf; 

For every day I turn my bad wish down, 

Though every moment its defeat brings grief 

So sin's desire indulged doth aye contend 

With sin resisted, to decide if I 

Am sinner lost or saint to be revered 

At that high court which doth all guilt descry; 

For whether 't is more sinful sin to love. 

Than saintly not to do, how can one prove? 



HAPPINESS 

Sought of all men is happiness, real aim 

Of love and marriage, strife and toil and play; 

It goads to ventures, lures to fame and shame. 

Tempts fool and wise man each his chosen way; 

Each in his objects seeks it, when in truth 

'T is like a hare of which the hunt is more 

Than is the capture; little sport forsooth 

Has he who lounges idle round his door ; 

Our powers set on to something worth their strain 

Rouse the swift soul to such supernal joy 

That scarce it matters whether one attain 

The ends which his activities employ; 

For busy souls may die in ecstasies 

Though nought be caught of all they spurred to seize. 



IDEALS 

When o'er night-oceans throbs a steamer fast 
Tossing the starry spray starward in showers, 
Oft Dian rising scatters silver flowers 
Across its pathway on the darkling vast ; 
So driving forward from our troubled past 
Through towering surges that defy our powers. 
We see waves silvered midst of sullen hours 
With rays of splendor from ideals cast ; 
Sparkling their glimmer round our dull careers, 
Though less substantial than lost friends in dreams, 
They cheer us onward 'midst the clash of fears 
Towards futures brilliant in their ghostly gleams ; 
Frail phosphorescence ! most ideals made real 
Prove but thin moonshine; real 's the true ideal. 



ATTITUDE 

Some fume and fret the genial years away; 

Some gloom clear skies foreboding rainy hours; 

Some sharp misfortune curdles, or wholly sours; 

And many keep an angry tryst with day; 

'T is better with bright thoughts to make delay, 

To gild the hateful, baptize weeds to flowers, 

Call drenching rains the skirts of passing showers, 

And each defeat an unimportant fray; 

Make what one must to what one always would; 

Treat hateful tasks as goodly exercise 

In manly arts involving what one should; 

So in each mel6e conquer some small prize; 

Without such make-believe life's harrowing care 

Might chill all months with climates of despair. 



DEPRESSION 

Sometimes athwart a bright September day 
Blue haze will creep, enwrapping its cool light 
In veils that thicken till they baffle sight, 
While shivering winds swoop down on hill and bay; 
So o'er hale spirits blithe with jollity 
May creep eclipsing glooms with plumes of night. 
From nothing's cave emerging recondite, 
But chilling mirth to haggard misery; 
Yet give not place to bodings born of whim! 
The mists will flee, and other suns be clear! 
Take what time brings ! Fill to its mantling brim 
Life's only cup! Cry " Hail, all Hail, good cheer!" 
Despair is but an ebb of nervous tide ! 
'T will yield to flood! forego thy suicide! 

123 



HOPE 

How long above a swift ship's writhing wake 
The sea-gull hovers without faltering, 
Though all the winds of Eolus loosed may fling 
The bitter spray aloft and fiercely shake 
The bark's stiff shrouds ; like any white snow-flake 
She rides the blasts that ever shriek or sing; 
So doth the soul — a bird of ghostlier wing — 
Most rueful weathers in its world-flight take 
And still on vans of hope the stress o'ersoar, 
With energies that moult no feather of their quill; 
Trusting some fairy e'er brown locks grow hoar 
Will bring it safe to fortune's shining hill ; 
And though oft missing its supreme intents 
Finds its anticipations goodly recompense. 



INVOLUTION 

With every hour life complicates its course, 
Drawing our fortunes in as warp and woof. 
Till each one's liberty is lost perforce 
In the close fabric of the world's behoof; 
The lad at school naught complex feels in fate, 
The lover counts as slight its silken chain ; 
The husband, father, master, finds too late 
His powers laced close, all chance of freedom vain, 
And still on every side he 's meshed anew. 
Till hands, feet, tongue, eyes, ears, and soul are fast; 
His hours bespoken, notes are always due. 
And every movement harnessed to the past ; 
The growing tangle spins round brain and heart 
Till death's shears closing snip all knots apart. 

124 



MAN IN NATURE 

Nature brings man to birth, indifferent 

If it suits him or no, or what he tries; 

She gives a skin in which he smiles or cries. 

But lends no clothing briars to circumvent; 

Provides no shelter from the lightning's flame, 

No 'scape from earthquake, from dread plagues no ward, 

Bestorms with elemental terrors hard, 

And deaf to curse or prayer works on the same. 

No chance hath he to find felicity. 

Save as he masters well her methods rude. 

Wrings private use from her indifferent play 

And fashions good from her raw plenitude ; 

Who frets 'gainst nature frets as might wolf's cub 

Against his dam's rough peltry in the scrub. 



RIGHT AND BEST 

'T were better far and saving of much wrong 
That one should steer his team of aim and wit 
Not by the fancied certainty so strong 
Of "This is right, I must adhere to it," 
But rather by the less coercing rule 
Of "This is best so far as I can see," 
Which far more subtly guides the human mule 
Than fighting his infallibility ; 
For then would many a strife rein in its wrath. 
And fierce disputes draw hard the cautious curb, 
Bold dogma falter on its twilight path, 
And reason's lamp be lit where doubts disturb; 
When right sets his stifE horn to push his way, 
Gored reason bleeding finds no word to say. 

"5 



MATERIALISM 

Ages men spent upon their vaporous souls, 

Making poor progress in a human way ; 

Now all concern to earthly things they pay, 

And speed like racers toward the noblest goals. 

Yet cry the dreamers: "These are days of moles. 

All men are grubbing with a muck-rake base. 

Oblivious of the lordlier aims that raise 

True souls toward heaven above earth's wretched doles ; 

This crass material spirit ruins man!" 

O fools and blind ! that see not how past days 

Were poor and prostrate, slaves to phantoms wan, 

Because man wandered down those ghostly ways 

Where guidance was but guesswork ; and no soul 

Regarded earthly good as an all-worthy goal. 



FACT AND FAIRY 

Dearly we love the fairy realm where thought 
By fancy winged takes aimless flights through air, 
In butterfly courses glancing everywhere. 
Ignoring reason and the eternal ought ; 
Then prince or princess we step forth with naught 
To question claims to gifts beyond compare ; 
We walk as Croesus, Samsons, Solons, there. 
Young, handsome, great, in love and all-besought; 
Poor ploughman fact is 'mid these fairies hated ; 
Intruding clown that sweet illusion sours ; 
Avaunt coarse caitiff ! here thou art not waited ! 
Only fair falsehoods fit these elfin hours ! 
But fairies flee when morning's lark upsprings, 
And fact drives ploughshares through their ruined rings. 

126 



CHANCE 

As in an acorn hid from curious eyes 

A great oak nestles cunningly infolded, 

Which years may blight, or lift to favoring skies 

To spread its antlered boughs by storm-winds molded, 

So was on Nilus' flood, one long gone date, 

Amid thick bulrushes carefully concealed, 

In baby Moses Israel's sacred state 

Which his rare leadership to light revealed; 

So once in Genoa's port unguessed of men 

Our new world's destiny played unconcerned, 

The sport of countless accidents that then 

Had power to quench and leave it undiscemed. 

How many a nascent genius may foul chance 

Have in its cradle choked to impotence! 



WORD-CRAFT 

Bright scholars trained to the choice craft of words 
In their fine jugglery lost ignore that things 
As different are from words as singing birds 
From pictured wild-fowl wrought in garnishings; 
Then lead they through a maze of shadow-dances 
Their weightless phantoms, counterfeits of men, 
Whose wild-wood freedom like a charm entrances 
Child, youth and maid, and sober citizen; 
Their glittering words oft wreckers' lights become. 
Misguiding barks that fare o'er reef-strewn seas. 
And many a good ship rots 'mid fishes dumb, 
By reckless authors drawn toward treacherous lees; 
Yet men give fine words worship though they lie 
In love with phrases' fatal phantasy. 

127 



PITH 

How weak arc words, though most in evidence, 

To make society or good or great! 

Since deeds build social order, greatcn the state, 

Give root to morals, arts, intelligence; 

Demosthenes may hearten Greek defence 

In hot orations matchless for debate, 

But Greece is ruined while he still doth prate, 

"Where grand Themislocles by violence 

Had vanquished mightier foes of earlier time; 

So not smooth orators nor statesmen wise. 

Nor churches, journals, schools, nor books sublime 

Build the strong bulwark that assault defies; 

Enduring states are all of deeds compact. 

Words graceful shailows playing round wrought fact. 



ALTERNATIVE 

Twin artists deft wiiom Yes and No we call 

Paint changeful hues of every life we see. 

In tints that please, or tones that later gall. 

With firm, quick stroke depicting each decree; 

Whate'cr our thought these craftsmen stand alert 

To signal every judgment open or hid, 

Whether it make for credit or for hurt 

It still goes down, nor can the stars forbid. 

Like grows the portrait as the faithful years 

Lay stroke on stroke, till every man stands drawn 

And pictured in his history; whence appears 

His fate and fortune — often woebegone; 

For Yes or No to wisely cry is clever, 

And most are bunglers that scarce hit it ever. 



OUR OVERLORDS 

Two rightful lords hath life, and both are liege, 

Love hight the one, and Lucre his born twin; 

Both reign, Love in the heart with high prestige, 

But Lucre elsewhere to Love's deep chagrin. 

As queen and king these twain in reverence held, 

Both honored, heeded, served make bright one's fate, 

But either disobeyed one's peace is knelled, 

And good days doomed to terms that lacerate. 

Who Love despises risks a life forlorn, 

Who Lucre scorns risks life each day debased. 

And which is worse need no one well discern, 

Since both are woeful, each a different waste. 

Fanatic liegemen 'twixt these twain put strife. 

But both bear sceptres, both wear crowns of life. 



CORRESPONDENCE 

A crested surge breaks on the reef in spray. 
Breaks on the eye in waves of glancing light. 
Breaks on the unseen brain in further flight. 
And breaks to thought within its matter gray, 
Whose refluent wave may prompt its lord to weigh 
Giant Arcturus in the starry night, 
Or kindle patriot to a bolder fight, 
Or start explorer on some fearsome way; 
So by th' eternal interchange of waves 
Mere matter stirs the answering sea of mind, 
To be in turn tormented in its caves 
By viewless thoughts as by a chafing wind; 
For all the universe one motion thrills, 
The same in circling orbs and viewless wills. 
9 129 



NARROW-MINDEDNESS 

Small, narrow minds like rocky throats to streams 

Constrict the foaming torrents of great souls 

That nature pours through human loins, nor dreams 

Them dangerous, — sent to float the fools; 

But narrow minds will strangle household joy; 

Slay Romeos and Juliets with passionate pride; 

Red and white roses for hate's badge employ; 

And creeds of love to screeds of strife misguide ; 

How brightly flows the river of wide thought 

Flashing between low banks of liberty, 

Its tranquil bosom with all treasures fraught. 

The hopes, the works, the joys of men mind- free! 

Through sunless gorges sends the narrow mind 

Its shrill-complaining streams black-hued and blind. 



METAPHYSIC 

Stout is the thrall of metaphysic thread, 
That tangles facts and binds thin logic's school 
To theses barren as a convent's rule, 
Or the fixed vassalage of a leader dead. 
Who yields his mind will live by phrase, instead 
Of breezy thoughts born of the living times. 
Wear ancient virtues turned to modern crimes, 
And strangle truth with views inherited. 
But fact now trips up logic ; reasoners 
Go down before the shots of brisk reality ; 
Inventors brain slow schoolmen ; quick need stirs 
To do what theorists deny can be; 
Them no fact moves; as at her anchor chain 
A moored bark rides, so they hear winds in vain. 
130 



MONOTONY 

As croons a reedy bagpipe on the ear 
With even, buzzing note that on and on 
Makes melancholy plaint, and life more drear; 
Or as a bee's incessant undertone, 
When in a chamber prisoned he declares 
His tiny terror, longing for free sky. 
And bruises on the ceiling as he fares 
Declaiming to all earth his misery; 
So is monotony's all-wearying thrum, 
The iterate sound of custom's sentinel tread. 
That paralyzes action and wears dumb 
Hope's ringing voice to expectations wed ; 
Slowly life's music turns a mumbling drone 
More deadly than disaster's thunder-tone. 



DAVID AND GOLIATH 

When stripling David ruddy-cheeked and bold, 
Raw from the hills, strode forth with sling and stone 
To dare Philistia's braggart huge of bone, 
Whose brawny hand a beamy spear controlled. 
He but prefigured in his limber mold 
New truth's unarmored champions, who unknown 
Defy armed giant Prejudice, alone. 
And at his forehead fling facts, missiles cold. 
Ever are Israel's armies small though staunch, 
Ever within their tents withdrawn and slow; 
Till some young gallant stout of heart dare launch 
The hurtling word that lays mailed Error low. 
Then to their David raise they paeans loud, 
And charging rout Philistia's heathen crowd. 

131 



Sleep and Death 



M3 



SLEEP 

By day, a prowling animal, man walks 

The earth, inventive, masterful, and shrewd; 

Riots in love, ambition, force, and talks 

Of gods as waiting on his wilful mood; 

By night unconscious in deep sleep he sinks 

Back to a foot-bound plant sans thought, sans will, 

One with ancestral flora; trailed by links 

Towards paltry sorrel, and poor daffodil. 

Such floral slumbers mark his cousinhood. 

Hint whence he sprang, and what his kind, ere yet 

The nursing years had given him veins and blood 

To make full man what erst was seaweed wet; 

Microbe's, plant's, animal's epitome 

He sums earth's life in his life's history. 



SLEEP AND DEATH 

Sleep rosy in his beauty binds with chains 
Ambitious, lordly man wrapped in a spell 
That locks each feeling prisoner in his cell. 
And every muscle of his force distrains; 
Death pale as snow in tighter bonds detains 
All motion, passion, hope, and warm desire, 
Dispels from hearts the terror of things dire, 
And every wretch benumbs to dreaded pains ; 
Sleep oft his bonds unbinds and leaves his ward 
To new exposures full of dangers grim ; 
Death like a sentry keeps perpetual guard, 
Nor can assault coerce the spear of him; 
Yet men who woo sound sleep's forgetfulness 
Death's sounder sleep shun as the worst distress. 

135 



ETERNAL LIFE 

Were it a boon forever to explore 

The long-drawn weariness and trite routine 

Of an existence aged to the core 

Whose stale experience makes the new day mean? 

Not few are they on whom our few years pall, 

Who tire of life's capricious changeful weathers ; 

Nor few who drugged with pleasure loudly call 

Slow death to cut them loose from earthly tethers; 

So they who promise everlasting hours 

And cycles endless but surcharge our woe ; 

Existence for ten decades numbs our powers, — 

Who then through eons could endure to go? 

But to lie down and cease all quietly 

Were 't not a finish most would like to be? 



AFTER AND BEFORE 

What if 't were true that death were dreamless sleep, 
Wherein the riotous flesh and sprightly soul 
Should find their last and everlasting goal 
In the concealing grave's untroubled heap! 
The bare suggestion sends a shudder deep 
Through every recess of the frightened spirit, 
Threat'ning the joy of all that we inherit, 
As did some masked assassin toward us creep. 
Yet let us think, how we knew no heart-beat, 
Being yet ungathered dust that felt no thrill. 
When Rome fell prostrate ncath Alaric's feet 
Or Washington held Cornwallis at his will; 
As little should we, dead and once interred. 
By all earth's wondrous clangor be perturbed. 

136 



LETHE 

What ails thee Death, that men should curse thy ways? 

Kind Nurse! Thy poppy drowsier than sleep 

The aching flesh doth soothe and sweetly steep 

In baths of painlessness; whom strife doth craze 

Thou bringest peace like Indian summer days; 

Who hath sown ill by thee escapes to reap ; 

Who much are wronged through thee may cease to weep ; 

And who are banned lose care for blame or praise. 

Yet men abhor thee utterly! and bear 

Time's rack and torture, go blind, deaf, lame, old, 

To shun thy quietude; craving still to share 

Earth's sunshine longer 'mid griefs manifold; 

Yet at the last all nestle to thy breast 

Like tired children to a cradled rest. 



NIRVANA 

Were there no death to open exit sure 
From life's perplexity and restless fret. 
Who could the nagging tongue of time endure, 
Its voice reproachful, its o'erwise regret? 
Now through death's open window we outpeer 
Into its brooding silence without break, 
That like a balm o'erbreathes the nerves of fear 
And like a music bids us care forsake. 
Were no such window pierced, did we but find 
Ourselves time's prisoners, shut up in flesh 
For aye, with its perpetual ills unkind. 
Who could his soul from such a bane refresh ? 
But now as busy day looks toward night's peace 
We living glance toward death's unbought release, 

137 



IMMORTALITY 

Dream of the dreamer who forgets earth's rack, 

Blowing gay bubbles of the glorious fates 

Awaiting him beyond the comet's track, 

Like one who, scorning thousands, millions waits! 

The church hangs round it painted tapestries. 

Wherein hell's flames and heaven's delights are wrought 

In colored threads of ancient fable-dyes 

Of signs and saints, and what its God hath thought. 

But broidered screens display no living things, 

Nor can grave church make quick her figured truth; 

We know for all his gaily painted wings 

The cherub is no living child forsooth; 

And what avails, though set with large display, 

Such picture-piece of immortality? 



THE MORGUE 

Lo ! nature to herself resumes for long 

The house she leased its tenant for life's course- 

The straight, full figure delicately strong, 

The pliant muscles stored with mobile force. 

This now is as a sculptured sea-shell cast 

Upon the strand for waves to pulverize, 

As little heeded for its greater past, 

As is a pauper for his ancestries. 

Yet subtle forces builded up its powers. 

Gave luminous beauty to its face of mind. 

Gave tireless heart to beat the sequent hours. 

Gave flexile limbs in finest lines designed. 

Millions of such doth nature yearly fashion. 

And other millions serve with dispossession. 



PESTILENCE 

Dread fury, whose insatiable maw 
Devours the tender folk as frost the flowers I 
Art thou an angel sent from heavenly towers 
To spread destruction as King David saw? 
Ah, no! No longer God's revengeful law 
Chastising sinners for their jocund hours 
We see, but rather filth's envenomed powers 
That catch at life through each unguarded flaw; 
Our minds we call the poisonous thing to slay, 
Not in the hope of supernatural aid 
To bring us victory in our keen foray, 
But trusting to our wit's thrice-sharpened blade; 
Destroying angels have but scanty chance 
When matched with men who give no tolerance. 



139 



Schoolmen 



141 



MEPHISTO 

That skeptic demon, Mephistopheles 
The questioner, hath snared our prosperous age 
With jesting at the faith-philosophies 
That in duress held earlier hind and sage; 
Little he recks of Credos old or new, 
Trusting his brave thoughts of the universe ; 
Snaps his blithe fingers at church-threats of rue, 
And laughs that pleasure hath no primal curse; 
So singing, shouting, round our highways stirs. 
Scattering blue devils with his airy mirth. 
Locks up the cloisters, opens theatres, 
Sends daily journals to the humdrum hearth; 
Empties the Pantheon of fancy's gods. 
And gives to common reason motor roads. 



CORNER-STONES 

For perfect trust naught is so good a base 
As myths fantastic and impossible. 
Which when baptized as "mysteries" outface 
Reason's five wits, and fact's well -proved apostle. 
As "sacred" soar above the scrutiny 
Of curious critics who their claims might question ; 
As "God-inspired" quite frankly can defy 
Mere argument as skeptics' vile suggestion. 
As " God's own Word" they threaten awful ruin 
To who their character investigates, 
And solemnly denounce as truth's assassin 
Who point out errors in their predicates. 
No broom yet made will brush a fog away; 
So myth disproved re-closes on the day. 
143 



CREDULITIES 

Are not all faith's credulities embalmed 

In pungent spices of perturbing fears, 

With curse and bogie to the pale lips crammed, 

Old folk-lore tales by firelight crooned? One hears 

Their far ancestral gossip babbled low 

From nurse to babe, from sire to wide-eyed son, 

As solemn truth and questionless, that no 

Good soul may doubt lest it should be undone. 

Yet men have lost their faiths without the loss 

Of aught that made their day-times glorious. 

And thrown off with them many a heavy cross 

Which tortured hearts with pangs notorious. 

Retreating myths like any mist exhaling 

Let in glad sunshine braver souls regaling. 



SEEKERS AFTER GODS 

Who seeks for gods will find them without fail; 
An hundred or a dozen shall he find. 
Or all he will; incarnate, or pure mind; 
In trinity or sole; female or male; 
Fathers with sons whom safely none assail; 
A virgin, mother, child, by love enshrined; 
No thought too wild, nor none too blind 
To fashion gods of — gross or in detail. 
And each alike is potent ; lives and reigns 
Supreme and loved by throngs of worshippers; 
Armed cap-a-pie to butcher who disdains 
To serve their god and other god prefers. 
Before his own each trembles, worships, bows, 
While each the other scoffs and disavows. 

144 



SECTS 

Caught by unproved assertions reckless, bold, 
Men think their safety lies within the pale 
Of their hereditary sect, whose special phrase 
Both priest and church declare has sure avail. 
Many their claims, each as his mother taught: 
"The Church," criesone; another, " Baptism right " 
A third, "Conversion" with salvation fraught; 
A fourth, "The Sacraments" have saving might. 
What furious hubbub rises from the throng! 
Each will convince another, each is sure 
His is the true way to the immortal song, 
His leads to heaven and peace that will endure. 
And reason asking "Wherefore say you so?" 
Gets answers many as down seeds that blow. 



BUDDHA 

"Om mani," drones the Buddhist, "padmi houm." 

Oh, the jewel in the lotus hidden! 

Nor why he cries it knows, nor why 't is bidden 

It to cry, nor what he cries; on the loom 

Of ages woven, piety gives it room; 

'Mid magic, mystic phrases it is cherished 

As a charm, where meaning words had perished ; 

Such is its sacred, talismanic doom. 

Like is its spell with "Aves," "Paters," scattered 

In dead tongues by reasonless devotees; 

Or the "Allah illah allah," pattered 

By pale set lips of Muslim dervishes. 

"Jewels in the lotus hidden" serve as well 

As other phrase to save good souls from hell. 

lo 145 



CALVINISM 

A network tough, as 'twere of hammered steel, 
With mesh of complex ignorance devised 
To wind men in its web of things unreal 
And verbal tangles by its prisoners prized, 
Did Calvin forge in his despotic brain; 
And as once Vulcan in a cunning trap 
Did Mars with Venus for the gods detain, 
So thought he love divine with wrath t' enwrap. 
And long as men gave faith to mysteries. 
Where premise, reasoning, and conclusion were 
Shielded from wit and warfare by new pleas 
'Gainst human reason, bide they in the snare. 
But many-weaponed knowledge sets thought free 
And rends the logic network hopelessly. 



THE PURITAN 

Strange product of a melancholy creed. 
Framed like its articles to thoughts austere, 
His days fell lowering as a clouded mere. 
Mistaking gloom for duty, flower for weed; 
What sombre passion could him so mislead 
That he should blacken nature, and her cheer 
Look gruffly on, scowling at pleasure dear 
In dread that she his finer life should bleed? 
Were soul worth saving at such precious cost 
Of time's short hours deformed with tedious groans, 
While earth's vast splendor was accounted dross. 
And man's great secular movement seen with moans.'* 
His work as Puritan has paled of late. 
His work as freeman still keeps good the state. 

146 



THE QUAKER 

A man sincere in narrow lines we see ; 

In uncouth garb, on which he lays deep stress, 

The good Friend goes protesting against dress ; 

Of curious speech hard-strained to "thou" and "thee," 

Protesting against artifice goes he ; 

The spirit's freedom he in words doth bless. 

But holds such freedom must his views express, 

So keeps his way in calm persistency. 

To the deep silence of his soul confined, 

Secluded from the stormy world's debate, 

He listens for Heaven's voice to guide him blind. 

As were 't a task for gods on him to wait. 

Yet such success doth not with his work run 

As clearly shows Almighty supervision. 



THE SHAKER 

Grotesque believer in a God distrait, 
Whose creature, man, was foolishly designed 
To reproduce his unre generate kind. 
In hopes the race might stop itself some day 
By curious abnegation of that way! 
How limps thy worship in these scornful times, 
When thy fantastic dance seems like old mimes, 
Or Indian wizard's fetish mimicry! 
Are queer ancestral whimsies troubling thee, 
Obscure remembrances stored away in nerve 
By years when, fumbling round in savagery, 
The rude barbarian used such rites to observe? 
But what a drought ye start in our spare lot, 
Who love and wealth salute with "Thou shalt not"! 

147 



THE SECTARY 

As grows the unsightly cactus stiff and bare 

With prickly spines and graceless stalk of green 

Above a sandy waste wherein is seen 

No grass nor shrub but only wide despair, 

So grows the sectary upon the fair 

Green fields of nature which his creed makes mean, 

Rejecting generosities and e'en 

Sweet friendships and love's comradeships so rare 

And laughter's gleeful face and music's quires. 

So stands iamid the waste his thoughts have made, 

A grim endurance parched with torrid fires. 

Though time had proffered palms and elms of shade ; 

Then o'er life's bareness drones a lying moan. 

Not seeing the blight is his, and his alone. 



LIBERAL CHRISTIANS 

In vain good Christian spreads his sail to thought, 
In vain courts freshening breezes of the time 
Since he is chained, as poet to his rhyme. 
Chained to an ancient name and page with naught 
To mold our day wherein new truth is sought. 
About his mooring round and round he spins, 
And thinks because he changes place, he wins 
A voyage forward as good seamen ought. 
And much he fusses reefing in worn sails, 
New rent by new gales fresh from modem schools. 
Hoisting patched canvas that no whit avails 
Save for bold show, to keep moth-eaten rules. 
A spinning top as soon will win a race 
As he, still humming round the same old base. 

148 



THE AGNOSTIC 

How strange, that to avow one's ignorance, 
Where all in blanket-darkness blindly grope, 
Should lasso one as with a herdsman's rope 
Of shy distrust, while hardy insolence 
Of any bigotry gives less offence ! 
Yet has our ignorance the widest scope, 
Since knowledge finds short limits inside hope ; 
Nor can the wisest tell us plainly, whence 
We came to being on this casual globe, 
Nor whither go when from our place we drop, 
Slipping from out this radiant flesh, our robe; 
Or if we go at all and do not merely stop. 
This know all well, but to outspeak it loud 
Puts the confessor under social cloud. 



149 



Fairy Land 



151 



SPIRIT 

Is spirit but the fairy name of what 

Grows quick through grouping of material powers? 

Once was it thought to dwell in streams, stars, showers, 

A living person housed in grove, or grot. 

Of human strain but greater; 't is our lot 

To have discovered that this fancied being 

Is but the creature of imperfect seeing, 

And that in every place a spirit still is not. 

May not all spirits, demon, god, or man, 

Alike fade out from every human creed? 

Since these like other spirits never can 

Their separate being prove by separate deed. 

Then may mankind its highest good discover 

To lie in nature, — his eternal lover. 



SIN 

Portentous goblin homed and hoofed and tailed. 
Sired out of Terror by swart Ignorance, 
The nightmare Sin has ridden man who wailed 
O'er fen and brier — a madman's frantic dance; 
Then coward he, by ghoulish imps bestrid. 
Has rushed on hideous crimes his soul to purge. 
Tortured his flesh, slain wife and child unbid. 
And set his life to grim repentance's dirge. 
Little he dreamed that gods had small concern 
For poor profanities, but had him shriven, 
When they his birth decreed ; nor could they bum 
A soul to ambushed falsehoods blindly driven. 
That such high treason should the high gods please 
Were but blasphemer's view of deities. 

153 



THE FANATIC 

"What an uncivil heart-consuming craze 

Is that which, handcuffed to one isolate thought, 

Bends Nature's largeness and man's various ways 

To the gnarled flexure of one crabbed Ought ! 

And what a tortured demon-ridden wight 

Is he — the victim of that dinning elf 

That rides him through the vast complex of right 

Forever beating that one drum himself! 

His forehead stem, his wild and matted locks, 

His frosty aspect blight the flowers of spring; 

His iteration each new purpose blocks; 

He lives in prison where never sweet birds sing. 

Broad-minded Shakespeare were a better type, 

Who humored all thoughts, seeking wisdom ripe. 



OCCULTISM 

Sphinxes are vain pretenders who conceal, 
Enwrapt in riddles, some poor commonplace, 
Which being guessed their shallowness reveal 
But make no wiser who its knots unlace. 
Truths esoteric or occult are weak, — 
So weak that when the all-revealing light 
Their emptiness exposes, they must sneak 
Back into cover of the screening night. 
But living tnith shuns not the blazing day ; 
No beams too fierce, no scrutiny too keen 
For its brave face; it shirks naught men can say 
Secure in fact against tongue's bitterest spleen. 
Light of the public square each statue tries, 
Dispelling shadow shapes of mysteries. 
154 



THE QUESTION OF EVIL 

A God omnipotent, omniscient, good. 

Loves well His world! Yet under His decree 

Is sin, crime, wretchedness! What blind mystery 

Incredible ! Because a good God would 

Prevent such evil as a strong God could. 

For God say Nature; then the problem's free 

From empty questions as to what "should be," 

Since Nature 's dumb, nor owns to any "should. " 

This course of Nature heedless and austere 

Works out such potencies as ne'er could spring 

From unavenging forces less severe 

Of faultless virtue and no suffering; 

Resisted storms to oaks their fibre lend 

And conquered evil is man's staunchest friend. 



THE BLACK VEIL 

As troop the sooty crows across the sky 
At nightfall winging home their dusky flight, 
Nor utter note, nor turn to left or right, 
But drive straight onward, hastening silently; 
So dark-veiled vestals, that sweet love deny, 
Wing their sad way from vespers' dirge of night, 
With eyes cast down as fearing earthly blight. 
To seek the cloister's wan monotony. 
Poor victims of the curious creeds that hold, 
God sends some here to live averse to mirth. 
Delights to see them to men's pleasure cold. 
And alien to the children-haunted hearth ; 
What treacherous God it were that made a world 
And those that liked it to perdition hurled ! 
155 



BLACK FRIARS 

Why should Devotion drape her devotees 

In raven garments of despondency, 

Leaving bright colors to light souls that please 

Their days with nature's frolic gayety? 

Thinks she that God who in creation's song 

Applauded all his works and called them good 

Has since repented of bright hues as wrong 

And chosen gloomy for the pious mood ? 

The Quaker gray, the nun's robe of dull black, 

The monk's brown cowl, the preacher's mourning suit, 

What comment put they on the faith, alack! 

That so doth vestment every staunch recruit. 

Were not the pagan cults with feast and dance 

Nearer God's method of exuberance? 



156 



Supernatural 



157 



THEOLOGY 

As sits a parrot in her gilded cage, 

Forever conning one mechanic note, 

Nor ever wearies of her burden sage 

Long since outworn by her unmeaning rote ; 

And as that bird forever feels secure 

Upon its perch within a house of wire, 

Nor longs to see the world beyond its mure 

Lest it fall victim to some monster dire 

So sits theology within its round 

Of modern saws and affirmations old, 

Disputing novelties beyond its bound 

And screaming at discoveries as too bold. 

But what poor gains had mortal men procured, 

Had they the ancestral cages still endured. 



HEAVEN AND EARTH 

The ragged dervish whirling like one mad 
In the lewd frenzy of extinguished thought 
Feels sure to please some god with the poor fad 
Of buying heavenly good for earthly ; naught 
Heeds his fool-fancy that he dupes with cheats 
Poor present comfort, till he strips it bare; 
Drugs fruitful enterprise with counterfeits; 
And bustling work forsakes for drowsing prayer. 
As the pert jackdaw decks his nest with glass, 
Man chooses rubbish with disheart'ning zeal; 
Though starved and frozen hies him to a mass, 
And for his soul neglects his body's weal. 
But to be warmed, well fed and housed on earth 
Rears finer souls than piety mid dearth. 
159 



DEUS EX MACHINA 

They who abound in worldly goods and health, 

Having no strife with life, believe in God 

As good, the gracious fountain of their wealth, 

And to the suffering preach to kiss the rod. 

But they whose fortunes sourly crost are care, 

With toil, disease, and accidents perverse, 

Believe in demon princes of the air, 

And feel existence as that demon's curse. 

As lakes reflect whatever on the spot 

May stand — tree, castle, crag, a fence, or flowers- 

So mirrors each man's deity the lot 

Which he works out mid good or grievous hours. 

The fortunate a glorious God adore, 

While wretches galled a devil god implore. 



THE FALSE GOD 

Name for man's ignorance, yet more revered 
Than his best knowledge which all harvests reaps, 
To whom great fanes are built and altars reared 
That man may gi'ovel at them while he weeps! 
How far hath science pushed thee from our globe. 
Crowding thy spectres out through grove and glen. 
From star to star still seeking thine abode, 
And finding only phantom in each den. 
Wherever knowledge drills its tunnels in, 
Following the shining veins of golden truth, 
It drives thy ghost before it pale and thin 
Till thou 'rt left homeless unrevered forsooth. 
Illustrious day! When slow mankind shall be 
Released from thy fear by wise scrutiny ! 

1 60 



WORSHIP 

While listening to the organ's solemn sound, 
And robed choirs chaunting like wind-rustled sea, 
Who can but wish this soul-uplifting round 
To fruitful uses might have been and be? 
Whoe'er recalls its ageless industry- 
Must ask if aught has given less of gain 
Than worship, which hath held man's soul in fee 
And levied toll on all his hands have ta'cn? 
Are not the ships of faith now sinking low 
On the horizon's marge, as bound nowhere? 
Knows any one the port whereto they go ? 
Or trusts he costly cargo to their care? 
Ages of faith still left a world forlorn, 
Now days of action make an earth new-bom. 



SERMONS 

Fervid orations scintillate and flow 
From reverend pulpits down cathedral aisles, 
Like molten lava streams down dark defiles, 
Yet leave men empty as a dish of snow. 
For knowledge makes no portion of their glow ; 
Heating devotion to a torrid zeal 
They bar the mind to searching thought's appeal, 
No fresh horizons showing the flock below. 
Were half the eloquence but vented thus 
To scatter germs of knowledge fresh and new, 
That it might ripen to fruitage generous. 
Men had perhaps waxed wise and sane and true. 
The keys of heaven's kingdom knowledge guards; 
And faith's pretences ne'er unlock its wards. 
[ i6i 



AUTHORITY 

Who halters to old books his questioning thought 

Elects to dwell with primal ignorance, 

'Mid baseless guesses made ere knowledge brought 

Its certainty to nature's random glance. 

'T is wanton phantasy to make believe 

Our rude forefathers held great in God fee, 

And did from Him an express word receive 

Better than any later age should see. 

'T is charming folk-lore swarms the sacred page, 

The buzzing fancies of grown children's brains, 

Which but for ancientry would ne'er engage 

The manly reason with one moment's pains. 

Their fairy talcs for God-given gospels taken 

Leave thought a prey to fond romance forsaken. 



GOD AND NATURE 

Why doth not God scourge blas])hemy? Or more. 
Reply to prayers to check a pestilence, 
That still stalks on though supplications pour 
Like rains in April? Is 't indifference? 
And though men curse His all-untroubled name, 
Profane His temples, or disown His Son, 
He takes no vengeance, visits with no blame, 
Nor harries sacrilege though often done. 
Now Nature lets none slight her majesty 
Without revenge taken quick as lightning flies; 
Yet some fear God, who with live Nature play 
As might a lamb with lions, — till he dies. 
And when she slays with prompt severity. 
They call on God with bitter useless cry. 
162 



A FLICKERING TORCH 

If 't were but sure a god did supervise 

The scheme of man's career and wisely steer 

The lame endeavor of his anxious fear 

Toward havens of divine felicities, 

Were 't not for blundering souls a high emprise 

To bear the brunt of all misfortunes drear, 

Trusting the issues to that vision clear 

Though ragged lightnings filled the stormy skies? 

But far too flickering is this torch of faith 

When held o'er empty cribs and homes of woe, 

With ghastly light on tragedies it playeth. 

Nor shows a recompense to those who sow 

Bad seed to barren years, and reach the grave 

In sobbing anguish fooled of all they crave. 



MYSTERY 

Within a cave a-smoke with fumes of fear, 
Mephitic with rank superstition's breath, 
Dwells mystery 'mid imps and dragons queer. 
With satans, fiends, and goblins loaned by Death; 
There too are glimmering flames of threatened hells, 
The Sheols, Tophets, Tartarus kindled of old 
To scorch the souls that feared no priest-born spells 
In the dread dark beyond this earthly wold ; 
Its terrors daunted each barbarian wight 
Whose blanched lips told his dreams for truth and scrawled 
Children's rude figures on blackboards of fright 
To which that tattooed savage trembling crawled ; 
Men shuddered more at formless ghosts of threat 
Than at real horrors in their life-haunts met. 

163 



THE POPPY 

The red rose speaks for love that soul elates, 
The mignonette for faithfulness, 't is said ; 
Should poppy stand for faith's sweet opiates 
That drug quick reason into drowsihead? 
For faith steals through the aggressive intellect 
With soothing balm that quiets thought like pain, 
Dulls its keen edge, and doth its sight deflect 
From novel truths that novel doubts unchain. 
Doubtless large poppy-beds wide beauty spread 
And faiths give color o'er great human fields, 
A Christian blue, gray Buddhist, Moslem red. 
Each to its own believers pleasure yields. 
And what asks faith but sleepy indolence 
And more of poppy to awakening sense. 



THE COFFINED PRIEST 

Cold, rigid, pale the tonsured priest doth lie 
Within the narrow bed for all once made, 
Nor plays there, golden, round his passive head 
Any bright aureole of sanctity. 
Scarcely less strait this casket I descry 
Than the cramped cell wherein the living priest, 
His mind immured, nor ever found the least 
Fault with his quarters in that custody. 
Perhaps his mind grows large in Paradise, 
If there he went; one thing is plain. 
That change from cell to coffin, though not nice, 
Gives him no cause its straitness to arraign. 
Who used but one close closet of broad earth 
Might find a casket large, too large in girth. 
164 



EARLY GODS 

"Dead are the old gods," cries the worshipper 

Who kneels to new in cults elaborate; 

But still old gods are gods compassionate, 

Whose native glories to devotion spur; 

The dazzling sun is man's great comforter; 

The full-orbed moon he sees with heart elate ; 

Huge branching trees, and hearthstone fires propitiate 

The universal heart ; one might aver 

These natural gods confer more pleasure 

Than all the deities of human name, 

Whose prophets promise blessings without measure, 

Though little come of their unblushing claim. 

But every day those woo our love again 

That feed, caress and hearten living men. 



MYTH AND SCIENCE 

As when new mom breaks in auroral dawn 
Through glimmering portals of far-arching sky, 
And mounts till coping leagues of hill and lawn 
One sea of rippling color glows on high, 
So was the heaven of human thought at first 
With gorgeous splendors of bright gods o'erspread. 
Whose glories into divers names disperst 
Dyed man's conceits to fables gold and red; 
Mom's brilliant coloring fades as grows the day 
To one wide sheet of all-revealing light, 
So myths dissolve before white science's ray 
In the clear splendor which unblindfolds sight ; 
But science leads to liberty and power 
With all that beauteous gods had failed to shower. 

i6s 



FULIGINOSUS 

Smoke of high altars, wreathing victims slain 

To heedless gods, for ages had upcurled 

Above poor human dwellings, all in vain, — 

The gods untouched disdained the writhing world ; 

Smoke of tall factories whirling wheels of speed 

Fumes now from chimneys where men forge and weave, 

Whence human welfare due to human deed 

Outpours 'mid smoke much misery to relieve. 

So prayers dispatched to move the hand of heaven 

As little win as did fat victims erst ; 

To him who doeth naught is nothing given. 

But all to him who reckons deed the first. 

Offerings and prayers sent by lean idleness 

Are beggars lame and blind that swell distress. 



THE HOLY COAT OF TREVES 

What wondrous sight is this our times behold, 
When myth and legend dry like dew away, 
When doughty miracles lose their mystic sway, 
That one frayed coat is prized above fine gold. 
And worshipped as a cloth of power untold ! 
Yet no such trophies can it boast to-day 
As steam and wire across the whale's path gray. 
Or chemistry's new gifts to nations old. 
But deep within ancestral halls of soul 
Cowled mysteries kneel before some relic prized. 
Or crooning, low-toned litanies uproll 
Emotions that keep cowed thought hypnotized; 
For fables with their wings of butterfly 
Outcharm dun fact in garb of earthly dye, 

166 



MILAN CATHEDRAL 

How like an anthem fraught with praise, toward heaven 

In spotless marble white as angel's face 

Above the plain where man is sharply driven, 

The great cathedral lifts its sculptured grace! 

The misty nave seems arching into sky, 

The pillared aisles dim woodland avenues; 

Great windows painted with the rainbow's dye 

Show Mary and the babe in roseate hues; 

To buy God's favor and reprieve from hell 

This oratorio in stone was sung; 

Each spire a note in that imploring swell 

By human terror towards God's pardon flung; 

Before its altars still men weep and pray 

Intent with words Christ's pity to waylay. 



KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 

By love, prayer, worship, is God ever sought. 
And reached in transports dewed with grateful tears. 
Wherein emotion swallows up all fears 
And feeling to an ecstasy is wrought. 
But God to knowledge more reveals His thought. 
Since knowledge widens its circles all the years. 
While through enlarging forces still He nears 
And to the student from all points is brought. 
What feeling feels were somewhat; what mind knows 
Is still the greater and to greater leads; 
Since God's face through fresh knowledge ever grows 
And ends in more than telling o'er monk's beads. 
Who knows, knows God in truth, since knowledge is 
Of God's works only in a universe all His. 

167 



THE WILL OF GOD 

Nature is God's first will; that's sure; and yet 

Rash, heady men, bom yesterday, berate 

This ancient nature, like a martinet. 

And dub it sinful, shameless, reprobate; 

Man's complex constitution they befoul 

With reckless words, as were 't man-m.ade; full sure 

They can much better it ; so scowl and howl 

At who prefers sound nature's dateless lure ; 

So preach that one should bow to principles 

That cross and vex his grain, and make accurst 

His life; then when he swears, inveighs, rebels, 

Call him the more a devil, bad as worst; 

Now God's will, nature, will all earth-life bless, 

But thwarted bring to maddened bitterness. 



EXPANSIONS 

When at the theatre of our troubled earth 
I view the play of all-adventuring man, 
Note his philosophies and cults, and scan 
His ways fantastic, harsh, and mean, the dearth 
Of wit and wisdom that sits by his hearth ; 
And that God humors all, withholding ban. 
Permitting each to thrive as best he can, 
I ponder if e'en badness hath not worth. 
Oh thou! who claim'st thy views are measure sure 
For all that should be in the rolling planet. 
That thy but late-born wisdom makes secure 
Thy bold decisions that get birth upon it. 
Unbuckle the girdle of thy home-grown wit 
And to all wandering thought throw open it! 

1 68 



Love 



169 



BELOVED 

O Wife! most loved, still dear, whose life did creep 

Into the shade of lonely death too soon, 

Before thy feet had climbed the height of noon, 

Or scaled the radiant crest of life's high steep ! 

How doth thy hand as 't were from heaven's blue deep 

Uphold my footsteps with a constant boon 

(As doth the shouldering seas the rolling moon) ; 

So far love reaches from death's house of sleep. 

Thy star receding shines with lessening beam 

As through time's lengthening avenues I gaze, 

Yet never fades from thought that distant gleam 

Whence comes the peace and strength of lingering days. 

Where'er the saints are is thy genial spirit. 

Whose seats thy goodness must for aye inherit. 



PAN AND ECHO 

Pan and his lovely Echo were a pair, 
'Twixt whom was never discord, though the twain 
Were married when time started in his wain ; 
But Echo ever had considerate care 
To go rehearsing Pan's words everywhere, 
Attentive to his multiform refrain, 
And often changing voice, or mad, or sane. 
Still adding sweetness with responsive air. 
How many wives had thought peace dearly bought 
At cost of such attention to their lords. 
And rather give the loudest cry to thought 
Though household riot follow on their words ! 
Yet after ages of discoursing, who 
Of wives hath such sweet voice as shy Echo? 

171 



VENUS VICTRIX 

Most lustrous planet! Wanderer of the night, 
Serene and steadfast shine thy beauteous rays, 
Unmindful of the admiring deep amaze 
Of those who worship toward thy careless light. 
How far aloof from sympathy, thy bright 
Untroubled radiance in the heavenly ways! 
Remote from sorry earth whence men may gaze 
To glorify their piteous human plight. 
Bare are the skies when thou art hid from view, 
Though all the feebler stars their great array 
Spread o'er the hollow concave of the blue 
To charm our sight, beguiling care away. 
In vain ! Since ever dazzled are their eyes 
That once have seen thee in their heaven arise. 



DISPARTED 

Within the west the crescent moon hangs clear 
With Venus pendant to her sickle keen, 
As when but lately one large jewel's sheen 
Decked the white crescent of my lady's ear. 
But lovelier than the planet in her sphere. 
Far is the star, nor near the moon I ween 
Yet farther she with but one pace between 
Where pallid love endures the pall and bier. 
New moon and star part company erelong. 
Withdraw their mated beauty from the eve; 
Oft human fortunes suffer equal wrong 
And lives are severed beyond time's reprieve, 
Whose fates conjoined had burned with lustre bright 
Upon the arch of life's recurrent night. 

172 



DEAR DESPAIR 

Like Jove's large planet flashing in the sky, 

Thou keepest that sole place which nature gave, 

Nor stoopest down, whoe'er of men may rave. 

To lend to one thy peerless brilliancy. 

'T is better so, since thus thy splendor high 

For all men shines, to no one made a slave; 

Since in one love thy light might find a grave, 

That shines a glory now to every eye. 

How my sight reels beholding all thy state. 

Attracted and repelled alternately!- 

Enchanted by that lofty mien elate 

That gives no hint of mortal destiny! 

Oft wretched in thy sight yet worsened far 

When from thy presence lost I lose my star ! 



SOLATIUM 

What were my refuge from foul fortune's spite 
When flowers distil me poisons rank with ill. 
When strange catastrophes my ripe hopes kill. 
And threats of worse disasters me affright, — 
What were in such an hour of rust and blight, 
Save hemlock in life's brimming cup to spill, 
And at one draught all miseries to fulfil. 
Were 't not that death would blot thy face from sight? 
For when I thee behold distresses fade, 
I nor remember nor believe in woe, 
Thy world of brightness brightens mine of shade, 
And in thy glory my eclipses glow; 
The sun that from a storm-cloud shows his face 
Not more irradiates sea than thou my case. 

173 



BROODING 

Dear Love! thy face before my troubled gaze 
In air-drawn outlines like a spectre rises, 
Or like a star veiled in obscuring haze, 
Whose seldom beam the darkling sea surprises; 
I call thy name in phrases manifold, 
Still pleased, though but an echo faint replies. 
To hear the gracious syllables retold 
Within whose circuit all my heaven lies. 
Thy absence makes the street a solitude 
Though full of rustling feet that onward press, 
And other friends seem but as strangers rude 
Whose kindly words accent my loneliness. 
Like the dear God thou fillest time and space 
With hovering visions of thy dearer face. 



WAKING AND SLEEPING 

I know thee absent through my waking hours, 
But sleeping dream thee present in full sooth ; 
To give sleep's vision all the joy of truth 
There fails but speech denied of heavenly powers. 
So near! So far! Yet still in slumber's bowers 
Th' illusion hovers touched with tender ruth. 
Bending on me its glance of glowing youth. 
Which flies when fatal mom upon me lowers. 
Yet would I not from thee in thought be free. 
The mourning day is still a tomb of love, 
And love hath joyance e'en in misery, 
So high is loving all delights above. 
Then haunt me still thou present, absent dear, 
Till when returning thy loved self appear. 

174 



DON GIOVANNI 

A score of times have I succumbed to love, 
Inflamed by his strange fires that reason sear; 
Each kindled me with flames that wise men fear 
Yet cannot quench, howe'er they disapprove; 
Each time sincere, from each I next did rove. 
And whirled away to charmers made more dear 
By fancy's shifting whimsies, waxed austere 
Toward old attractions that with new ones strove. 
But older now, love's ardor grows more frail; 
I know that each fresh glamour soon may fade, 
That beauty, grace, and spirit all may fail 
To bind me firmly to the charming maid. 
And yet the ancient, human fires will bum 
And raptures kindle where new loves concern. 



LOVE'S TREASON 

As when a lion springs upon his prey 
And with one stroke of talons lays him low. 
While he a trembling victim scarce doth know 
If yet he live or hath passed clean away, 
So is the heart that love doth once betray, 
Felled by the fury of his treacherous blow, 
So paralyzed it scarce can longer trow 
If still it keep the realms of sunlit day. 
The beauteous world that once was joy intense. 
Sunshine and song and hours but lately bliss, 
Turn to a faded dream upon the sense 
And all that thrilled but adds to wretchedness. 
And like the kid beneath the leopard's paw. 
Love cannot raise his head for love's foul flaw. 

175 



LUVINU AND LIKING 

With full-winged capcmcss love hotly flies; 

llatini^ the su.'iil-slow pace of foot-sure tliought, 

To stoop upon his quarry; calling enemies 

Whoe'er would make delay, resenting aught 

That warns; so often Ihuis liiniself caught fast 

On thorns that i)rick him thick with tortures grim; 

When married all his life is hourly cast 

Against a nature nettle-like to him; 

A liking starts as soon but slow of (liglit, 

Floats like a circling hawk nion* leisurely 

O'er its seen choice, nor doth alight 

Till it hath searched all coverts, ncath its eye; 

And \vlu>re love married oft is stung to hate 

A married liking grows to lover's mate. 



LOVE AND MARRIAGE 

Who praise love's passion in its foaming course, 
Impatient, hividstrong, liery, quick to blame, 
Hut faintly knt)W the all-surpassing force 
Of wedded love and what its larger flame. 
One like a meteor sends one ray through night; 
A sun, the other gilds all days with joy; 
No sorrow but will sjiarkle in its light. 
No hour but summer in its di'ar employ. 
One like a brooklet brawls and fumes along 
Waking the echoes with its riotous flow; 
The olher, like a river deep and strong. 
In silent waters drowns all ills below. 
Who loves yet never weds but sips the brink 
Of that rare wine well-wedded ilaily drink. 

I 7() 



HER NEW LOVER 

Yl'S, he is manly in his stalwart nujid, 
His face well turned, his neck a trifle bull, 
His supi)le waist and hips well set and full, 
His legs arc strong like any athlete bold. 
His glance is free, nor is his heart a-cold, 
Plays well at ball and well an oar can j)ull. 
And rides a horse as if to ride were null. 
No better all-round man is there I 'm told. 
Has money too, and keeps his yacht afloat. 
Takes wind and weather like a Viking bom. 
Nor is he vain, nor on himself doth doat 
Nor on less gifted creatures show his scorn. 
And if a little wit he had 'twould be 
A last perfection — vice tori)idity. 



THOUGHT AND LOVE 

Who deems that thought can love's warm place supply, 
Or who that love for thought's defect atone, 
Forgets his nature's twin comj^lexity, 
Nor heeds how light and fire botli fill life's zone; 
Yet love in love on thought's calm ways will rail. 
Will stormily cry that all shf;uld yield to her; 
And sturdy thought will quest his Holy Grail 
With headstrong zeal though pleading love demur; 
And each will rue his jjartial word at last; 
Lovers will think, for love will thinkers pine; 
Each have a surfeit of his nearest past, 
Anfl crave the father for its touch divine; 
Though mad with If^vc recall thought's starry skies, 
Yet not forget 'mid thouglits love's ecstasies! 

'77 



REPENTANCE 

Dear heart ! When strolling on the high-cliffed shore 

That gracious afternoon mid-summer last, 

Recalling fatal errors of the past, 

The while the great sea sighed as grieving sore, 

Seemed it as easy as for waves to roar, 

That our weak falter should aside be cast 

And place again be found at love's repast 

For us who missed to that rare feast the door. 

But only seemed! The past laughed scornfully 

At our imploring cry to be reheard ; 

As touched with human pain in sympathy 

Again the sea in pensive murmur stirred ; 

And breathed: "Who once lets love's door close shall greet 

In outer darkness till slow death seem sweet." 



A FACE 

A sudden gleam of black Italian eyes, — 
A diamond flash starts on my vagrant sight, 
As lightning from a frowning cloud of night, 
Stirring my soul with tumults of surprise ; 
A sweet young mouth whose lips the red blood plies 
And paints a hue that kindles sense like fire, 
Lashing the nerves with whips of keen desire. 
Upon whose sting the voice of reason dies. 
A brown, ripe cheek, a softly dimpled chin. 
Small serried teeth, pearls of old ocean's caves. 
And half-closed eyelids stealthy as hid sin. 
With smiles like sea-foam breaking down dark waves. 
Such met me yesterday and with a glance 
Took me its prisoner with swift insolence. 

178 



LOVE IN A HORSE-CAR 

What twain are these, who in the crowded car 
Find such deHght within the golden day, 
That furtive smiles about their red lips play. 
As each towards each casts glances like a star? 
Nothing that haps can their devotion mar. 
Both wrapt in pleasure at what love doth say 
Through words that other import should convey. 
As that, "The day is bright!" "The distance far!" 
They went to Wall street, not to see th' Exchange, 
But still to see each other face to face, 
And all the day wherever they might range, 
'T was still one presence did each new scene grace. 
Fresh from the country keeping honeymoon 
They sip love's fulness, like two bees at noon. 



179 



Friendship 



ELI KIRKE PRICE 

Friend of the sages, and 'mid sages friend, 

Whose living presence honored, loved, revered, 

Did like a benison thy house attend, 

How lapsing years thy memory have endeared ! 

Within thy city wert thou loudly praised, 

Thy silver hair was to thy townsmen pride. 

Thy calm words heard as wisdom's voice upraised. 

And sought thy counsel just on every side. 

Who shrewder was t' untwist law's tangled skein? 

Who had more foresight for the city's weal? 

Who of the newest learning was more fain ? 

Who less for human praises made appeal? 

Thy sweet serenity and courtly grace 

Must well become the heavens thy dwelling-place. 



INCESSU PATUIT DEA 

Within my time two women have I known. 
Two daughters of the blessed gods supreme : 
The one was dark and with night's stars did dream. 
The other fair like young Aurora shone ; 
The first released my plaintive youth from moan. 
The other did my cheerier age redeem ; 
But both so goodly, that one might esteem 
Himself full-blest were either made his own. 
Was it not fortune rare, twain to have found 
In cloth of gold amid the ruck of frieze ? 
Two friends that on life's ocean outward bound 
In hailing distance caught the selfsame breeze? 
So, lonely have I never found the wave 
Where all are sailing toward the lonely grave. 

183 



BEREAVEMENT 

When the procession of lost friends 1 call 
From glimmering halls of unrepentant death, 
What shromliiii; griefs tny mourning heart o'erpall 
As I rehearse tlieir charms while life gave breath! 
Some ricli in learning, some for genius choice ; 
Some prized for art, some for their bubbling mirth ; 
One for the rajiture of her glorious voice, 
For beauty some, some for their oft ])roved worth; 
All, all for love; each leaves a memory sad, 
A cureless loss wiiereat eyes dim with tears; 
New faces throng their places young and glad, 
Wliich also cheer in turn the lengthening years; 
But never on the unheeding earth's M'ide plain 
Shall those dear forms cross-bar the light again. 



FRIENDS' FRIENDS 

When in tl\e rapture of divine surjirise 
One meets a friend's friend praised beyond compare, 
And finds such praises were but worthless air 
Matched with the chann of sweet realities; 
Tlien thanks he all the gods, that Nature vies 
With his half-budded hopes, and makes one fair 
Richer in triumphs than his thoughts could dare, 
And iuiils the future with contented eyes. 
So when such fortime lately grasped my hand 
All things most feared fell fron\ my heart away; 
The earth fresh gilded seemed a sunnier strand 
For that new face that graced the later day. 
Long as her love in his love shall repose 
My friend enriched to me but clearer grows. 

1S4 



SIRENS 

Sirens that sang by Cajjrca's misty coast 

Till her brown beaches whitened with the bones 

Of sca-(lrownc(l mariners mid sca-washod stones, 

How many daughters have ye left to boast 

Of equal havoc wrought amid the host 

Of modern men, whose last breath spent in moans 

Accuses your per(idi(jus songs?— ye heartless ones 

Who faintly smile unheeding every ghost! 

Nor shall time fall that yn sh.'dl cease to sing, 

Sing in sweet voices and admired refrains, 

Sing while charmed victims their dear souls shall fling 

At your white feet and die uj)on your strains; 

And always on men's anguish will ye gaze 

With subtle smile through which pleased wonder plays. 



FROST 

As when a frost locks fast the silver streams, 
And sears the jjctals of belated flowers, 
When birds give place to silent, songless hours, 
Since in the south bright Titan sinks his beams, 
So thy long absence as a frost-breath seems 
That binds delights in winter's icy chains, 
And blighted thought of ancient joy restrains. 
While over all a flowcrlcss winter dreams. 
How changed the scene from those of earlier days, 
When we twain held one common course and still 
One common thought pursued, and in the rays 
Of one condition walked for good or ill : 
Should'st thou return, it were as summer came 
With balmy freshness and his flowers, aflame. 

i«5 



A LOST FRIEND 

Perplexity, distress, and sore dismay- 
Like warning Sybils, robed in sullen black, 
Come forth to mock me on the wonted track 
Where Love was singing erst his roundelay. 
They thrust on me their bitter company. 
Recalling blithesome hours that now I lack, 
Since June to March her days hath beaten back, 
Frosting her roses with a surly day. 
Yet Love must always leave his flowers exposed 
To chilling blight and treason's secret ill; 
It were not Love that kept his garden closed. 
And Brutus sometimes will his Caesar kill. 
Yet those black three still coming to my gate 
Scourge me with misery too inveterate. 



DESERTED 

Like one who on a lonely sea alone, 
Afar from land, far from befriending barks, 
Drifts on a broken spar, nor ever marks 
The sea-mew's cry, nor waves' incessant moan, 
So spent is he with misery ; no groan 
Escapes his lips, since slow forgetfulness 
Steals o'er his fading sense with dull distress ; 
But Death sits waiting for him as his own. 
So losing thee I drift on time's wide wave, 
Where neither sight nor sound concerns me more ; 
All rest of life I care not now to save. 
As chilled with grief thy blindness I deplore. 
Day follows day unchanged, while I abide 
As one half-dead, and wholly stupefied. 
i86 



FRIENDS IN NEED 

Than friends earth breeds no choicer dear resource, 
But only to the point where we need get 
Assistance for sharp wants that us may fret ; 
Then friendship balks like a sleek, peevish horse, 
And being pricked will kick with sullen force ; 
A friend whom carking cares like flies beset 
Is easier borne than helped to pay a debt, 
So seldom will he be relieved, of course. 
Therefore should friendship lounge within the bars 
Beyond which ravin the snarling beasts of need. 
Nor let the wrangle of their hungry jars 
Be heard amid its voices; for indeed 
True friendship is a kid too delicate 
To gambol far outside its garden gate. 



DIES IR^ 

Beats angry fortune on my head her worst, 
Chills dearest friendships, plucks good wealth away. 
With pains stout heart and body doth dismay, 
And throttling cherished plans makes days accurst ; 
Now knowledge fails to comfort, — once my first; 
Love erewhile friendly finds her blue skies gray ; 
Hope hides in fear the splendor of his ray, 
And wine, jest, song all fail, — so cheery erst; 
Now what remains but death's release to sue, 
That sponges clean the slate of cares at eve, 
Erasing problems study failed to do. 
And granting long recess from tasks that grieve ? 
Save that of earthly woes death is the sum 
Whose full disaster strikes all others dumb ! 

187 



Life 



i8q 



SOCIETY 

A silken salon trimmed with lustres bright, 

Where men and women their rare best display, 

In costly garments tricked for charming sight, 

That every sense may swim in gayety. 

Shows sunny Nature from her nurse, old Care, 

Slipt off to play like any child for glee, 

And sip of love's elixir mid the flare 

Of jewels, glittering eyes and laughter free. 

'T is the high orgy of thrice-gilded life. 

The flower-crowned feast of senses, feeling, thought, 

Whence all is banned that wears the scowl of strife, 

Where all is bidden of love and friendship wrought; 

Even science, letters, fames are second here 

Where only genial persons first appear. 



CONVERvSATION 

Not more the songs of birds, nor varied more 
Their plumes and stroke of flight across the sky, 
Than conversations are, that evermore 
Fly through the haunts of men a-low or high. 
Some like the condor soar above the sight, 
Some like the sea-mew dive beneath the deep, 
More round man's daily business have their flight 
And near life's common level fluttering keep. 
But low or high, each whirs its human way 
In love's delight or hatred's murky air; 
Its stir diversifies the busy day. 
And hurries progress on its course of care. 
The lightest-winged may chirp the sweetest lay 
And to the heart speak what hearts love to say. 

191 



WALT WHITMAN 

I 

I too, a man, sum up the ages past, 

In blood, flesh, soul, one outcome of the stress 

Of universal nature ; I at last. 

If small or large, if mean or grand, express 

The general whole; for me have cycles rowed 

Their skiffs across the darkling gulfs of time. 

Like cheerful boatmen easy with their load ; 

For me the stars their circuit kept in rhyme ; 

For me did nebula cohere to orb, 

And the slow strata build their mountain mass; 

For me did protoplasmic force absorb 

The mineral dust and grow to saurian crass. 

In the first nothing slept I all secure, 

Sure of my birthday as tiie stars were sure. 



II 

At last arrived I hail my manliood's play 

Of llesh with force, of sense witli beauty stung, 

Of heart that bounds towards each new comrade flung 

Across my patli to love me or betray; 

A harp Eolian where all winds foray 

Not more responsive sings to every breeze, 

Boreas or Zephyr, as the stray hours please. 

Than sings my nature to each changeful day. 

Wliat clashing tumults in my fortune meet! 

What pulses throb to love's divine caress! 

Wliat joyous muscle springs to motion fleet! 

Wliat eager brain doth eager thoughts possess! 

Heart's love I give, and find in many souls, 

Hands locked in hands we wend toward common goals. 



YOUTH AND ELD 

As May hath flowers and flush October fruit, 

So youth hath love, and age his wisdom tried ; 

Yet age in wisdom takes a lesser pride 

Than youth tloih eherish f<jr a ruffled suit. 

Youth doth its brave appearance much repute. 

Fresh skin, stout muscles, cheery heart beside, 

While age contracts its scope and fortunes wide. 

In shrivelled body shirking all disjjute. 

Ycmth's face is set toward summer's i)ompou:; jjrimc, 

And promise of unknown, autumnal grace; 

While age toward barren winter speeds his time. 

Feeling November on his blanching face. 

So hand-full age to handsome youth gives way, 

And youth the beggar hath the richer day. 



SOLUS CUM SOLO 

How pleasantly an uncompanioned time 

One passes with himself! not heeding aught 

Of what his nc;ighl)(jr thought, or sf)ught, (jr wrought! 

With sound views quickened as a soil with rime 

One hears the world with his own wishes chime 

Unjarred by any notes of discord rude. 

That vanish banislied from his solitude. 

While all he cares for bides in golden prime. 

Plenty reigns in that kingdom, and whate'er 

He wills is done; his views are faultless truths, 

Since no unreasonable fellow queer 

Dares here appear against those views to cruise. 

And like a spider scraml;ling down his thread, 

He meets no hindrance; .safe as one unwed. 

u 193 



SARATOGA 

Cool Saratoga's many-fountaincd .springs 
By all-compounding nature brewed, call round 
Unnumbered throngs whose dollars much abound, 
With some who hold their compound healing brings. 
Loudly within her ballroom fashion rings 
Her golden bells, whose sweet seductive sound 
May turn to bridal chimes, ere autumn crowned 
With fruits shall spread her rainbow wings. 
"An empty, vulgar pomp of wealth, where taste 
And wisdom, virtue, love, have smallest part," 
Cry some, whose souls too superfine, and waste, 
Flat purses comrades be in scorn's poor art; 
But wealth makes pleasure, life, magnificence, 
Which may for paltry scorn give recompense. 



A LAWSUIT 

The tedious court its fretful wrangle holds. 
Where back and forth contention swings his brand. 
And lawyers paid entangle truth's fine strand 
As each at each in legal jargon scolds. 
Justice in drowsy calm her eyes blindfolds. 
And lets her scales hang idly in her hand ; 
Though eager clients still imploring stand. 
She listens long nor yet the verdict molds. 
Would that her clear wise word might sooner ring 
Above the noise and falsehood of the suit. 
That she might teach the judges lest they bring 
Official follies from trained minds astute. 
For judges oft with law made dull and blind 
Give justice but lame spokesmen in their kind. 

194 



A CLIENT 

In him thou may'st behold the wreck of such 

A ship as lies a-pounding on the rocks, 

Which cast olT bravely from the harbor docks 

And bravely sailed beneath a south wind's touch ; 

Anon a norther rose and blew so much, 

Her tall masts fell, encumbered with their blocks, 

Her bulwarks stove beneath old Ocean's shocks. 

Her decks swept clean e'en to her cabin's hutch. 

So stranded on a lawsuit's ruinous reef 

Betwixt his enemy — the rock below — 

And harpy counsel greedy as a thief, 

His substance still from little to less doth grow. 

And lie has neither safety, strength, nor peace, 

But beaten back and f(jrth finds no surcease. 



OLD AGE 

All day the rain has blown beneath the cloud, 

All day the mists have smothered in the bay, 

All day have anchored yachts been drenched in spray. 

All day has tempest whistled wet and loud ; 

The streets deserted mourn their 'customed crowd, 

No children on the wind-swept beaches stray, 

Nor o'er the waves do hovering sea-gulls play, 

And the great mountains hide as in a shroud. 

So on old age are storms of misery bent. 

Dear friends are lost to surly death a prey. 

Sharp pains twinge through the muscles stiff and spent. 

And pleasure fades from outworn hearts away. 

The senses scant their bloom, the soul its fire. 

And day dogs day replete with stale desire. 

195 



BEAUTY AND TIME 

Sweet Beauty gazed on Time till his old veins 

Swelled with the rapture prone to blooming youth, 

Kindling such wanton ardors that his reins 

Forgot their ancientry and wisdom's ruth; 

Then clasping Beauty to his wrinkled breast 

He wrought upon her all the world's desire, 

Deaf to her outcries in his arms caressed. 

Nor cared that her bloom faded in his fire. 

When Beauty weeping saw her dreadful plight 

She sat her down dishevelled, desolate, 

Bewailing her misfortunes day and night, 

And praying Jove such crime to castigate. 

Jove laughed, foreseeing what would be her pride 

When Time's sweet children played at her sweet side. 



CLASSIC UNIVERSITIES 

Homes of traditions delicate of limb, 
Where guileless lore walks large in cap and gown. 
And ancient ghosts stalk forth to show their dim. 
Faint wisdom to the modem, busy town. 
How long will solemn Dons prefer old books 
To fresh-cheeked knowledge strengthening every day. 
And take gray cobwebs in oak-raftered nooks 
For work of Pallas' spider hid away? 
Is it not time to leave Minerva's owls 
For unstuffed birds that fly by day and sing 
Concerning living issues, and brave souls 
Since Agamemnon bom and flourishing? 
O cloistered halls! with blood-full youth ye deal, 
Who fool with games, bored with your dull ideal ! 

196 



Animals 



197 



THE SPEECHLESS 

Dumb animals are Nature's failures met 

In her long quest for man ; they struck false leads, 

Laying the strain of that contention set 

Upon all flesh to meet existence's needs, 

On tooth, or claw, or wing, or giant force. 

On fin, horn, beak, mail-coat, or scent of nose ; 

Each staked his chance on his preferred resource 

Nor could reach higher than the tool he chose. 

So grovel they, bound to a narrow line, 

Forever prisoners in a cage of thews; 

Their small desires and clumsy needs combine 

To keep them beastly in self-fashioned mews; 

But nimbler simians taking to the trees 

Made feet to hands, then tools and brains by these. 



FELIS LEO 

Tawny old Leo lies at length, scarce sees 
The throngs that stare upon his brindled face 
Awe-struck with legends of his fearful race ; 
He yawns, and opening out his bended knees 
Sits on his supple haunches, ill at ease; 
Then rising languidly begins to pace 
His cage with noiseless feet and feline grace. 
Or mouths his mate with gruesome teeth, that please! 
Dreams he perchance behind that forehead fierce 
Of the free desert where he sometime prowled. 
Hunting the roebuck, daring spears to pierce. 
Or crunching rivals while his mistress howled. 
But see ! A sudden uproar him arouses ; 
And king of beasts in majesty he poses. 

199 



THE LAST BUFFALO 

What a forlorn and time-discouraged brute 

Stands yonder cowering in the sleety rain, 

Whose drooping head and bramble-ragged mane 

Mark evil days and time's injurious suit! 

Can naught the glowering eyes of fight recruit? 

Nothing restore the black-browed strength again, 

When his forefathers tossed with fierce disdain 

Their shaggy fronts, and charged in hot pursuit 

Their redskin foes, till steed, man, buffalo. 

In one tumultuous melee mingled, sped 

Across the echoing plain, as torrents flow. 

While the gray dust flew heavenward from their tread 

And all fought 'gainst swift-riding death? Ah, no' 

Coralled in parks their warrior rage lies low. 



ROVER 

One melting July afternoon serene, 
Came a small toddler down the empty street, 
Scarce four years old, whose weak uncertain feet 
Went wandering onward by his friends unseen ; 
Our dozing Rover, stirred by dog-thoughts keen, 
Through half-closed eyelids saw the baby sweet, 
And rising gravely, in the blinding heat 
Gave her his escort down the village green. 
And when she turned aside and curled her down 
Within a dry ditch overhung with weed, 
He lay beside her, one paw on her gown, 
To guard her slumbers; giving patient heed 
Till twilight fell ; and then with barking wild 
Made echo till men came to take the child. 



THE RED SQUIRREL 

Fleet-footed racer of the forest way, 
Asking no road-bed for thy scampering speed 
Long as rail-fence, stone-wall, or dead branch gray 
Serve for thy twinkling feet's impatient need! 
What saucier form than thine arrests the sun? 
What prettier footstep rustles autumn leaves? 
What lovelier plume is waved by any one? 
What defter nutsman on the hickory thieves? 
Busy art thou as one of human kind 
To get thy store of nuts and grains secure, 
Against when Winter pacing his white round 
Locks nature's larder-lid with hoar-frost sure. 
Then boldest thou within the rocking tree, 
As men at Yule-time, flush festivity! 



A SNAP SHOT 

A cooing babe in idle innocence 
On all-fours creeping, as an infant will, 
About a settler's log hut near a rill, 
Espied a rattler coiled beside the fence; 
Having of serpents no experience 
The infant towards him crept as charmed, until 
The old snake fearing some insidious ill 
Rattled the signal of his dread intents. 
Spell-bound the distant father saw, as shot 
The fanged jaws forth the laughing babe to slay- 
When sharp a firearm's crack rang o'er the spot, 
That blew the hideous head a rod away. 
Swooned on her smoking rifle at her door 
Lay the child's mother, marksman of that score. 



Birds 



203 



THE ROBIN 

The robin hopping nimbly o'er the lawn, 

With head erect and friendly eye alert, 

Lfjoks, in his waistcoat red, as trim anrl jjcrL 

As life one picnic were from early dawn. 

And care did never make him woe-begone. 

But see, he stoops to tuj^ a worm from earth, 

Then cuts it small to feed the unenrling dearth 

Of greedy young whose mouths like wide graves yawn. 

So flies he back and forth the livelong day, 

From dawn to latest twilight drudging sore. 

To keep his fledglings from perdition's way 

And raise a family with naught in store. 

Wliat though he sing! he must his living win; 

Like man he toils, although he need not spin. 



BOB WHITE 

Across yon wheat-field near the bosky swale 
Cry two reiterate notes — " Bob White! Bob White!" 
Hctraying the modest lurking of the quail 
In whose striped body sportsmen much delight; 
Ancestral wits have brought him but to this 
Poor, slendcT sy^ecch for his vocabulary, 
Whereto fast shackled he must ever miss 
Knowledge of great transactions sublunary. 
His timid brood thus chirj; and fall a prey 
To human treacheries of springe or gun; 
That cruelly those pretty chicks betray 
And hush their music ctc 't is well begun ; 
Yet scTved on toast they to the higher rise, 
Becoming man in that last sacrifice, 

305 



THE BLUE JAY 

Now frosty Autumn lays its shaking hand 
On every woodland, summer pomps to doom, 
And lights the broad-leaved hickory as a brand 
Of yellow flame to cheer October gloom. 
Amid those hurtless fires, the blue jays flit 
On restless wing, with voice of strident tone, 
Foraging the great trees through without permit. 
Chaffing the squin-els, hunting wood-worms down. 
A rattling life our jay pursues, I wis, 
Intrusive, insolent, and gay with pride; 
The pleasure of the powerful is his. 
Whose strong beak like a spear doth foes deride. 
Hussar in blue mid gold and scarlet leaves, 
His soldier arrogance the small birds grieves. 



THE SPARROW'S NEST 

In grand Corinthian capitals of pride. 
On city streets the sparrow, nothing caring, 
Lodges his nest of straws and string allied 
For his wee offspring's safety and well-faring. 
So lives he in a palace housed in state, 
Not having carved a stone or laid a story. 
And safely perched on high above the gate 
Looks down on lords and princes in their glory. 
So little folks if careless, sturdy, merry, 
May mix with great and all their splendor share. 
Since nothing is required beyond the worry 
To put one in the swim and keep him there ; 
The sparrow chirps as well from eaves of stable ; 
But men-folk better 'mid friends rich and able. 
206 



THE SPARROW'S COURTSHIP 

A slim, brisk maiden trimmed in Quaker gray, 

Last year a fledgling, now to trim quill grown, 

Attracts the young beaux sparrows living alone, 

Who ask her grace to set a marriage day. 

Amid their chirping flocks in wanton play, 

Such noisy bickering she doth provoke, 

Stirring love's ardors in those little folk, 

As kindles wrath and many a bitter fray. 

Incessantly her lovers woo, while she 

Now one, now all with angry beak repels; 

As were each lover but an enemy. 

Whose ruffled plumage meant not wedding bells. 

None know what ends the courtship and the strife; 

But always soon the maid becomes a wife. 



BOBOLINK 

Brisk minstrel of the swamps that wak'st the May, 
How bravely dost thou ruffle in fine feathers, 
Facing tart elements and changeful weathers 
In yellow velvet and black satin gay. 
Thou art the brilliant tenor in Nature's play, 
Lover and cavalier of fens or heathers 
Whom household drudgery to thy nestlings tethers 
Without dispiriting, the livelong day. 
No English lark hath more blithe flow of song. 
More rippling thrills, more gurgling gush of notes. 
When from a bending weed or flying along 
The listening air, thy bubbling warble floats. 
Thou hast no teacher, yet stage tenors might 
In rivalry with thee be dumb for fright. 

207 



WILD PIGEONS 

Of old, wild pigeons streamed in flocks so vast 
They hid the sun beneath a twihght gray, 
And soft low thunders as they swiftly passed 
Shed from their wings along the airy way. 
Red Indians sparse took but a scanty toll 
From those innumerable broods that broke 
The forest branches at their nightly goal ; 
So grew they swiftly to a countless folk. 
White settlers came to farm and multiply ; 
To fill the echoing land with thrift and gain; 
Their children slew the wood-dove's progeny 
And hushed their cooing o'er the grain-rich plain, 
Till scarce a lonely swift-winged passenger 
Doth o'er wide prairie or deep forest fare. 



THE TURKEY 

Original American! whose swelling port 
And arrogant voice proclaim self-conscious worth, 
Thine ample merit opens hall and court 
The wide world round, despite thy barnyard birth. 
To thee as king of feasts ! When winter sere 
Calls men to wassail in the festive throng. 
Thou banishest the sense of nature's wrong. 
The new world's gift to old lands far and near. 
Far fitter than the ravening eagle thou 
To be our nation's symbol, since thou art 
A type of affluent plenty's overflow. 
Lighting man's eyes with health, with glee his heart. 
Not ours to prey like eagle, lion, bear. 
But scatter frolic bounty everywhere. 

208 



MIGRATIONS 

Aloft the wild geese fly in arrowy line, 

Fly swift and straight without an instant's thought, 

Fly silently, or honking loudly sign 

Each unto each the way to summer sought; 

Anon alighting near some silver lake 

They post them sentinels with eyes alert 

To guard their feeding phalanxes; awake, 

As are word-linking men, to hints of hurt. 

Whence learned they their fine subtleties — to know 

Old Titan's course in heaven, and steer untaught 

Without a compass, or by night to go 

Through pathless air? Find they the pole-star clear? 

Or in all creatures doth brisk reason reach. 

As with ourselves, to each one's needs in each? 



SEPTEMBER 

Fair-feathered and fair-weather friends of song 
Now form in flocks for flitting southwardly, 
And bickering loudly with discordant cry 
Rustle the trees whereto they swiftly throng. 
What noisy parliaments to them belong! 
What lively caucuses beneath the sky! 
As were all making ready carefully, 
Lest any fail of warning with their young. 
Have they the worry, trouble, and expense 
That heat domestic waters to a boil 
When human kind do change a residence? 
Ah, no! They have no baggage with its moil; 
And though their journey 's long through winrly air 
His own frail wings waft each small passenger. 
14 209 



EAGLE AND LIGHTNING 

Circling' beneath the clouds in lonely pride 

The bird of Jove serenely swept the sky, 

On strokeless pinions balancing so high 

The mountains shrank to wrinkles; then he cried: 

"Who hath such wing the black storm-rack to ride? 

Who kings it o'er his cognate tribes as I ? 

What barriers can check my wind-free liberty? 

What shaft or bullet cleave my orbit wide ? 

Man's petty tribes me on their crests portray, 

And to my swoop their hardiest deeds compare; 

And e'en great Jove whom gods and men obey 

Gives to my talons his fire-bolts to bear" — 

Jove flashed one dart of lightning through the sky, 

Jove's bird dropt headlong, weaker than a fly. 



THE FIREFLY 

Thy mimic lantern flashes through the night 

Like Juliet's window to direct thy mate. 

Whom ancient habitude keeps up so late 

That he must lie abed while sun shines bright. 

But since thy body must provide a light, 

Thou only of all creatures up to date 

Hast sprung some cunning method to create 

Light that not burns, but still will glow aright. 

Secret worth knowing! Could one importune 

It from thee ! But thou knowest not how, or why 

Thy myriads in the dew-impearled June 

Can flare and twinkle like new stars in sky, 

Yet kindle nothing; nature only knows 

What precious alchemics thy light compose. 



Flowers 



THE RED PEONY 

Reduplicate flower whose ruby wealth of dye 

Hath drunk its liquid splendor from the rim 

Of blushing wine-cups mantling to the brim 

With blood of purpled grapes! What bloom can vie 

With thine in its imperial potency? 

The queenly rose before thee waxes dim, 

Since thou art as an eastern garden hymn 

To sunrise sung — earth's rapturous morning cry. 

The childlike Japanese, whose almond eyes 

Adore thy flowering in the hardy spring. 

Release their children from school industries 

That they may drink thy lust of coloring. 

But Western people with Philistine sight 

Neglect thy glories, as ground moles the light. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS 

Flower most resplendent, much beloved of those 

Who, in the poor and hunger-bitten East 

With small delights, are fain to gild their least, — 

No flower of any field so variant blows. 

From buttons scarcely larger than the nose 

Of the wood squirrel, to the maenad feast 

Of hairy blossoms riotously creased. 

And tangled into heaps that pain the rose. 

Thine errant tribes may type the human race 

That fluctuates easily through various freaks 

From cannibal to gentleman, with face 

Of demon, angel, beast, that each bespeaks. 

Thy sports are curious, lovely, grandiose. 

But man's, from thug to Newton, outvie those. 

2 1.3 



Nature 



215 



THE HUDSON 

With tranquil majesty our river flows 

From lordly Adirondack Mountains green, 

Where muskrats slink and otter fish unseen 

And antlered stags wait for their lonely does. 

How swell its waters as it grandly goes 

By cloudy Catskill through West Point's ravine, 

Floating rich fleets its sculptured banks between, 

Toward pillared Palisades past Anthony's Nose! 

Next laps Manhattan's wharves in light caress, 

Blent with green Neptune's earth-surrounding streams 

And dancing by the city's blithesomeness , 

Gives port to navies where the high gull screams ; 

Then sinks its being in the featureless sea. 

As souls melt theirs in death's infinity. 



MANHATTAN BAY 

Let Naples boast her turquoise-gleaming bay 
Where towered Capri frets the sapphire skies 
And old Vesuvius stokes his furnaces : 
Manhattan's busier waters greet the day 
More blithely glorious to the sea-gods' play, 
Amid her isles surcrowned with palaces, 
Spanned by the bridge that with an elf- work vies, 
Gatewayed by "Narrows," 'gainst a foe's foray. 
Lo 
Lo 
Lo 
Lo 



snowy sails that drive where'er winds blow! 

swift-wheeled ferries furrowing deep the foam ! 

steamers huge like dark sea-kings that go! 

graceful yachts, dear pleasure's vagrant home! 
And see ! Fond Liberty her goddess sends 
To lighten hither all the world — our friends! 

217 



NEWPORT 

Old ocean thrashing his colossal waves 

Against the rock-ribbed outposts of the shore 

Rages no-whither with more deafening roar 

Than bellows through famed Newport's ragged caves. 

Dim centuries slink to cover while he raves 

Round cape and cornered cliff, and evermore 

Bursts in some weakened postern with his hoar 

Unweariable surge that spares nor saves. 

So 'mid our human sea incessantly 

The present dashes on the buttressed past 

As were foundations gray an enemy 

Fit but to fall to thought the iconoclast ; 

Each age its angry, battering surges flings , 

Upon staunch customs grown to hinderings. 



MOUNT DESERT— 1891 

This island lay as radiant in the sun, 
Mid bays as lovely, climbing peaks as high, 
With beaches fit to hear a lover sigh. 
In the dim days of fourteen ninety-one. 
But round these rocky capes did red men run. 
Stacking their wigwams 'neath the fish-hawk's eye, 
Trapping the broad-horned moose, and beaver sly. 
Themselves but prowlers like the game they won. 
Changed is the race and with it changed the whole! 
The settler routed Indians from their lair. 
To plant a palace on each rock-ribbed knoll. 
Build wharves, roads, towns — ^whatever makes earth fair; 
And where one savage paddled his frail canoe, 
A mighty war-fleet breaks the sea-way blue. 

218 



WATER 

The fluid surge beats flinty cliffs to shards; 

Shatters great steamers stranded on the rocks; 

And as with Thor's all-fracturing hammer knocks 

Sea-walls to fragments like a house of cards ; 

This selfsame surge drawn high in mist sunwards 

Floats lighter than a thistle's feathery locks, 

Drifts through the unharmed groves in broken flocks, 

Or strokes the strengthless grasses on the sward ; 

Exhaled to steam and trammelled close in steel 

With vaporous hand it drives huge enginery. 

Thrusts through the conquered wave the well-forged keel 

And doth its parent surge with ease defy; 

So well hath Nature through each drop disperst 

Her strength and weakness, each by turns the first. 



AT SEA 

I call thy name, O sea, to tell thee how 
I hate thy wave! Thou art a potter's field 
Of ever-ready graves ; nor friend nor lover wield 
O'er thee the lightest power; no sailor's vow 
Moves thee to spare his storm-beleaguered prow; 
Thy glorious, glittering face, thou treacherous knave, 
Is but a silver mask well wrought and brave 
To hide a ruffian 'neath a courtier's brow. 
What other armies since great Pharaoh's host 
Hast thou engulfed and strangled with false moan ? 
What mariners burked ? What cities on thy coasts ? 
Pale landsmen on thy rocking billows groan; 
Who lives upon thee, through thee, by thee, still 
Is helpless victim of thy murderous will. 

219 



SEA-WAVES 

As hour by hour the bickering waves repeat 

Their endless movement, nothing to attain, 

Nor check the music of their deep refrain 

Though each falls dying at his fellow's feet — 

So 'mid our human seas' incessant beat 

Rise men as baby ripples on the main ; 

Ten thousand dip to swell some others' gain, 

Their weak force spent within a narrow mete. 

Those others growing like a vast sea-crest 

Whose gloomy bulk o'ertowers the steadfast land, 

Some Bismarck or Napoleon, give unrest 

To empires trembling at their bold commar.d. 

Yet all alike sink at the last, and merge 

Their haughty being in the general surge. 



CALM AND TEMPEST 

Sleeps the white moonlight on the dimpled sea. 

Paving a silver highway o'er the waves 

As for a god's procession: Neptune's caves 

Sob with no liquid clamors, since e'en he 

Nods on his idle trident, while his free 

Tumultuous monsters cease their play ; scarce laves 

One surge the ship's black sides; rough Boreas raves 

Within barred gates confined. How changed shall be 

The halcyon scene when Eolus unreins 

His racing winds and shouts them forth across 

The breakers wild, blowing the streaming manes 

Back from their high-arched necks, with threats of loss 

To groaning merchantmen, whose chill sailors reef 

Their straining sails foreboding wreckful grief! 



NIAGARA 

In continental floods that roar and leap 
Niagara's waters down her rapids fly, 
Where white-maned breakers rearing far and nigh 
Like battling squadrons to the cataract sweep. 
Perpetual thunders boom athwart the deep, 
Perpetual vapors smoke athwart the sky, 
Perpetual rainbows o'er the thick mist ply, 
Perpetual shudders through the large earth creep. 
Who that beholds the plunge of emerald floods 
Down the huge horseshoe of the trembling fall 
But stands amazed as at a game of gods 
Whose viewless hands loose elements from thrall ? 
What countless ages heard these echoes roar 
Ere man was, and may hear when man 's no more! 



THE GREAT LAKES 

A silver chain in links of silver seas 

Cast carelessly across a continent, 

Whose folded lengths to many a loop are bent 

With sail and steamer pictured — such are these; 

Like oceans toss their billows to the breeze, 

Both bond and barrier 'twixt nations twain; 

Dividing land from land with leagues of main, 

Uniting both with commerce' hands of ease ; 

These friendly waters float no hostile fleets. 

No fortressed headlands frown with parapets; 

But bustling cities find their beaches meet 

For palaces unguarded, free from threats; 

And when their rivers down Niagara pour 

Their thunders please with mock of cannons' roar. 

22Z 



A TROUT BROOK 

'Neath leafy coverts of the bosky glen 

Trips the slim brook o'er ledges great and small 

Laughing in foam down many a tangled fall, 

And singing over shallows merrily, when 

Some pelting shower swells its thin stream ; and then 

The speckled beauty of the trout outleaps 

From the swift, rushing current where he keeps 

To snatch the giddy moth above his den ; 

Comes the sly sportsman with seductive hook 

And masquerading fly to featly lure 

That greedy gourmand from his chosen nook 

Beneath the alders where he lurks obscure ; 

If fly, fish, man be victim still thou fiowest, 

And still dost trip, laugh, sing where'er thou goest. 



THE MISSISSIPPI 

Father of waters, Mississippi! Hail, 

Most lordly river ! Thy imperial stream 

Hath silted back old Ocean to his pale 

And built a continent where nymphs did dream. 

Thick-shouldered buffalo once swarmed to drink 

Thy large perpetual flood ; wild horses drave 

In prancing herds along thy grassy brink, 

And amorous elk o'erswam thy tawny wave; 

Awe-stricken red men prayed thy deity. 

The Saxon came to show thee but a thing, 

With bridges spanned, with wheels defied thy play, 

And with strong dykes coerced thy wandering ; 

But when thou swell 'st to inundation's rage 

How dost thou waste man's painful seigniorage! 



THE NEW ENGLAND ELM 

Behold yon elm, with mighty girth of bole 

That singly lifts a forest into air, 

Each bough — a tree — doth countless branchlets bear, 

Which all one grove of foliage skyward roll ! 

But see! Now giant winds assault the whole, 

And clutching at its branches fiercely tear 

The green luxuriance of its dryad hair, 

Wringing its groaning limbs in wild control. 

An hundred years have swollen that trunk of might, 

Another hundred wait to crown its pride, 

While flitting legions of frail men in flight 

Through life's small plaisance in its shade confide. 

No wonder they of old held worship high 

Awed of great trees and did them deify. 



NATURE'S FESTIVALS 

The circling seasons tread a festive round. 
Which spring leads forth enwreathed in early flowers 
That troop to field and brookside when the showers 
Of dripping April drench the spongy ground ; 
A feast of leaves when summer pomps abound 
And woodlands fly their rustling banners ; then 
Shy Pan peeps out from his sequestered den, 
And dryads flit through copses foliage-crowned ; 
A feast of fruits when autumn iris-hued 
Brings in the foison of the copious year 
To heap the creaking wain, and Bacchus lewd 
Drains from empurpled grapes his frenzied cheer; 
A feast of winds when winter tempests howl 
And hood brown earth in a white-friars' cowl. 

223 



AUTUMN 

Behold the sunset hath his flushed scarves flung 
Upon the woodlands for a raiment bright 
To greet the coming of young Winter white, 
Whose herald Boreas hath his nearing sung. 
Sweet Autumn, shrinking like a captive wrung 
From war, clings to his neck with blandishments. 
Pervading all the air with faint rich scents 
To soothe his soul her ripening fruits among. 
Young Winter charmed forgoes his blustering noise, 
And lies at Autumn's feet in peacefulness, 
Wooed by her rustling leaves, her drowsy voice, 
And spells of gorgeous color in her dress. 
Her soft caresses his wild heart beguile 
To hold his frost-hounds in the leash awhile. 



INDIAN SUMMER 

November turns upon his heel and waits, 
The cold winds in his hutches kept in thrall, 
While dying Summer sounds a flute-like call 
To summon back her days beyond their dates. 
A slumberous languor folds the hills and brakes; 
The cock-crow sleepy through wide air doth fall ; 
Through russet woods faint lazy breezes crawl 
And nature broods as one that hardly wakes. 
Rare is a day in June, but rarer this. 
Sent when October's death hath grieved the year. 
That wooes the tranquil earth with such a kiss 
As white-haired lover gives his old love dear. 
The world of men basks in the borrowed day 
All wondering what hath given the white Czar stay. 

224 



THE BIRTH OF A CYCLONE 

The noon was heavy, hot, and still ; no air 
Fanned the close chambers of aerial space ; 
No leaf wagged on his spray in mid-day glare ; 
When from a bough — his lazy sun-screened place — 
A hawk upflew to seize an insect small, 
Then quick resumed his perch. His instant stroke 
Beat with light wing the stagnate heavens' wide hall, 
And rustled pendant leaves; their fluttering broke 
Into a gathering breeze that spun and whirled 
Till with a moaning roar and riot of death 
A far-flung cyclone reeled along the world. 
With towns and forests writhing in its breath. 
What hawk's wing started on the prairie wide 
Grew to God's terror 'mid men horrified. 



THE SOUTH YARD 

To sit within a honeysuckled porch and gaze 

Across an emerald lawn 'neath bowery elms, 

When shimmering heats enwrap the drowsy days 

And crickets drone across the airy realms; 

To hear slow zephyrs rustle through the trees. 

And watch the cumulus go down the sky, 

While all around breathes summer's languorous ease, 

Revives one's heart to childhood's vacancy. 

What though loud vespers in the neighboring fane 

Man's follies to the unheeding gods rehearse? 

Great, liberal nature chaunts her wise refrain 

In gentler tones that soothe the universe ; 

Her viewless fairies fill the dreamy air 

With balms that banish all the gnomes of care. 

IS 225 



A HOT WAVE 

O God! Thy weather is intolerable! 

Sits there no mercy in wind-driven clouds? 

Thou seest thy heat enwrap in stifling shrouds 

The pretty children ; and of woe how full 

To failing eld thy parched sirocco blows ! 

The blameless horses stagger through the streets 

Panting and conquered in thy blighting heats ; 

What can thy heart to such extremes dispose? 

Murders and suicides and desperate deeds 

Thy sun doth generate like worms in flesh ; 

Such crazy moods thy torrid Titan breeds 

When one cool breeze would from such sin refresh. 

Who praise God for choice mercies, might they not 

Blame him for horrors of his heat begot? 



NEW YEAR AT BOMBAY 

Rude January doffs his robes of fur, 
His fleecy beard and ermine wraps of snow ; 
Sends north his team of reinless gales to blow. 
And with mild zephyrs to Bombay doth spur, 
Where he meets May and takes the hand of her; 
Odorous with subtle perfumes strong and sweet, 
Beneath tall palm trees walks he light of feet 
Smoking his pipe with Oriental myrrh. 
So New Year enters as the youngling should, 
To beauteous welcomes of a balmy time, 
Crowned with fresh flowers in blooming multitude 
Instead of flowerless wreaths of hoary rime. 
But frosty greeting give Auroral Lights 
Mid frigid wastes and sparkling polar nights. 

226 



THE HEAVENS 

The sky, a trembling vast of space unknown, 

Presents a barrier to the baffled eye, 

Whose far-receding depths with stars are sown, 

Whose least existence were eternity. 

Beneath the heavenly dome we mortals go 

As 'neath the roof-tree of our native home, 

Nor count it strange, when wandering to and fro, 

It still goes with us, bending where we roam. 

Across its hollow arch bright planets swim. 

And the large moon place for its circle finds; 

The larger sun has but an islet's rim 

Within wide ethers which no limit binds. 

As one lone swimmer midst of shoreless seas 

Swims our lone being its immensities. 



TO-DAY 

A deathless lion stalking o'er the sand 
Of bleaching deserts, with his trailing tail 
Erasing every footprint as he wends, might stand 
Amid those trackless wastes a symbol pale 
Of that still living present, which between 
The dead past and the unknown future's vast 
Walks tireless onward, — sole creature ever seen 
Amid those endless phantom leagues out-cast. 
For us humanity fills out this hour 
With weighty interests to our fortunes wed, 
But countless eons were ere man did flower. 
And countless shall be when his term is sped; 
The desert is time's wide eternity, 
Th' immortal lion ever young To-day. 
227 



FINIS 

Some million years shall see the radiant sun, 

Through which we live and have our being all, 

So cold in heaven that icy chill shall fall 

On earth and planets that about him run ; 

Then shall our wonder-working race be done ; 

Its noble industries upon this ball. 

Its loves, arts, governments, whate'er we call 

Most glorious, like a splendid dream be gone ; 

O mystery of being ! That we men 

Should range all worlds for truth and strength and good 

Only to find in all at last a den 

Of desert chaos, lifeless solitude: 

What heart but aches with heavy pain to think 

His home, his race, his earth to naught shall shrink? 



OLD COMRADES 

O sonnets dear! How many sorrows lie 
Embosomed 'mid the orchards of your song ! 
How many a smarting moment hurt by wrong 
Hath soothed its anguish in your cadenced cry! 
How many a cheery hour has scurried by, 
Its moments racing in swift-footed throng. 
When, hunting rhymes that to your lines belong, 
Vain time forgot his tedium and low sigh. 
Now I, whom you so oft have comforted, 
Thus bid you forth unto the busy crowd, 
To try your fortune with all phrases said 
And mostly silenced 'mid earth's echoes loud. 
Such voyage safe I wish you on time's wave 
As hath frail nautilus where billows rave. 

22S 



Of Various Feather 



229 



BEAUTY 

The oriole like a firebrand flies 
Through the green boughs of leafy June, 
Unheedful of the brilliant dyes 
That make his presence such a boon. 

So beauty all unconscious lies 
In loveliness about the earth; 
Sunsets not heed their brilHant skies, 
Nor diamonds know their sparkling worth. 

Beauty but comes when man is born 
Who chooses this and that with care; 
Gives to one pebble naught but scorn. 
Another priceless leaves his heir; 

The oriole with glad eye pursues. 
The sparrow like a pariah shuns ; 
Would feathered jewels have in crews, 
Would brown birds slaughter with his guns. 



THE BACHELOR'S LAST DINNER 

A gallant youth strode down the street; 
Bright were his eyes and swift his feet. 
And gayly to himself he said: 
"It shall be long ere I am wed. 

"The girls are sweet, the girls are fair, 
And give me welcome everywhere. 
But many a day shall flit away 
Ere I be chained with one to stay." 
231 



The youth was bold and full of glee; 
He loved the land, but more the sea; 
He thought for years to hoist his sail 
And fly from wedlock on the gale. 

But in the violets on his breast 
Snugly ensconced chanced Love to rest, 
Who heard with roguish fun his boast, 
Sure prelude to a game soon lost. 

And then the fate he most did scorn 
Love sent to meet this youth one morn 
Upon the sea in dim disguise 
Demurely hid in hazel eyes 

Which snared him like a bird. In vain 
He strove against Love's fatal bane, 
For his stout challenge Love resented 
And him with thrilling pangs prevented. 

At last he yielded to Love's charm, 
For who can Love's small hands disarm? 
At Love's feet, bound with violet flowers. 
This bold youth spent his fleeting hours. 

And when the victress took him hence, 
A trophy to Love's consequence. 
He could not flee across the sea 
Unless in her dear company. 

And this late scornful bachelor 
Bids us, his friends, a feast to share, 
To celebrate his coming state 
And flight from men still celibate. 
232 



To whom anon this word he sends: 
" You know not what you miss, dear friends; 
Love's sweetness, charm, and tenderness 
Is what no words can all express. 

"I, prisoner here of Love's rich grace, 
Bid one and all to seek Love's face, 
And bending gladly at his throne 
To crave from him just such an one 

"As to my hand has fallen so late — 
A laughing, winsome, beauteous mate 
Whose single, coy and sweet caress 
Makes freedom seem but lonesomeness." 

So on these bachelors I call 

To give these lovers loved of all 

A "Long live bride and bridegroom gay," 

And flower- strewn be their earthly way. 

Till they in heaven are safely housed 
Be they at front of life's carouse. 
Their voyage rare all pleasures yield 
Till them receives the Elysian field. 



A REBEL SLAVE 

I was Love's master, he my slave ; 
I gaily drove him here and yon, 
Used whip and spur upon the knave. 
And with sharp words kept him undone. 
233 



And he, the craven, gave me grace, 
And like a serf to service born 
Bent his proud head before my face, 
And cowered beneath my Hghtest scorn. 

He brought me friends, he brought me hearts, 
He filled my hands with gifts of price ; 
Fair words he brought me from his marts 
And with soft promise did entice. 

So served me well for years, and feared 
Not to fulfil my faintest whim, 
A servant tried and prized appeared, 
Who sang me still his grateful hymn. 

Till when one day he saw and seized 
The heavenly rapture of thy smile. 
Then with it turned to me and teased 
His lifelong master with strange guile. 

Next, in a trice thy graces stole. 
And trimmed him with their loveliness; 
Put on thy matchless charms of soul, 
And stood as in new armor dressed. 

Then loosed his splendors all abroad. 
Filled the large air with flame and fear. 
And in such harness panoplied 
Drove at me with his sword and spear. 

First me of reason he despoiled. 
Plucked out my wit, my sense confused; 
All struggles to escape he foiled 
And with foul tortures me abused, 
234 



"Base slave turned master insolent, 
Full of deep treacheries unforeseen, 
Forever on thy malice bent, 
Thou 'rt but a rogue, thou varlet keen ! 

"Better that thou hadst never brought 
Thine earlier service to my knee, 
Than such mad havoc to have wrought. 
Within my household beating me. 

"Thou art a child that scatterest brands 
And criest ' I am but one in sport ! ' 
Thou scorchest lives with reckless hands 
And keepest ruin at thy court." 

He reft my hands of strength, and bent 
My fearless heart to timid woe ; 
He filled me with sad discontent 
And carking cares that lovers know. 

Now in his ruthless power held fast 
I mourn my former free delight, 
When heaven and earth before me past 
A gay procession of delight. 

Who shall my pleasure me restore ? 
Who loose me from this minion's thrall, 
Make dear the things dear once before 
And to loved labors me recall? 

The sun disturbs me in the sky, 
At star-crowned night I pout and swear, 
The bright June day is all awry. 
The world a tedium everywhere. 
235 



time most cruel, life in vain! 
We are the sport of acrid fates, 

We fain would ride in Charles's wain, 
But in the ditches find our mates. 

The world goes rushing on, nor recks 
Of all the wild despair we feel; 
When we lie down and die, she decks 
Our graves with green beneath her wheel. 

" I. hate you, life! you, time, I hate! 

1 have no patience with your ways ; 
Your children you excoriate. 
Keeping your placid smile always. 

"And you, O Love, most brutal god! 
A serf turned master coarse and bold — 
Let others praise your slightest nod. 
To me you are a fiend untold! 

"You lured me to your festal board. 
You kindled hope with countless lies. 
And where you promised bliss, drew sword 
And slew me with your treacheries." 

We are the prey of blood and nerve. 
High reason holds but fleeting power ; 
With her we strive to live and serve 
The best of nature every hour. 

When lo ! a riot of the sense 
At some fair face, some gracious mien, 
Fills the calm soul with turbulence, 
Bestorming all its moods serene. 
236 



Enough made happy but allure 
The rest to thinking they shall be; 
False lights on reef-bound coasts secure 
The greater wreckage on the sea. 

Be not seduced, O hapless man! 
Scud from the signal lights on shore ; 
Keep the high seas, nor dream you can 
Find land inside the breaker's roar. 

For soon, caught in the awful surge, 
Tossed to and fro, a wretched waif, 
You with your life will scarce emerge 
And then will moan that life is safe. 

Choose you a wife with judgment cool 
To mother children, keep the house; 
Live calm, well served, nor like a fool, 
Try with thy heart to find a spouse. 



SPRING-TIDE 

/ 

^ The dogwood heaps its banks of snow 

Against green billows of the wood. 

1 On sunny slopes the violets blow, 

' And dandelions star the sod. 

From fruit trees red the blossoms shake 
Their perfumes to the balmy air, 
Whence bustling bees new honey take 
With murmurous rapture everywhere. 
237 



/ 



The bluebird gay, the small wren pert, 
The ruffling sparrows full of fight, 
The bobolink with song alert 
Fill swamp and orchard with delight. 

The hearts of men find pleasure new 
In pleasure of the budding spring, 
Nor seems life now of sombre hue 
Nor life's delight a little thing. 

But Nature lends such winsome charm, 
Such beauty to the full-orbed day, 
That place, nor thought, is left for harm 
Or aught that mars our destiny. 



APPLE BLOvSSOMS 

The orchard flings its blossomed sprays 
Abroad in generous loveliness, 
Whereon the robin blithely sways 
And whistles in his russet dress. 

Far o'er the hillside swell the flowers 
In promise of the opening year, 
Oft spangled by sweet April showers 
And scenting far the wandering air. 

The ploughboy in his furrow stands 
With heart in rapture lost I guess, 
The large-eyed oxen turn his lands 
With equal hearts of happiness. 
238 



Both drink of Nature's generous wine 
Served freshly at her vernal feast, 
Nor either dreams that powers divine 
Resent their careless naturalness. 

Little they muse on deadly sin 
Or blot the time with duty's pain, 
Content enough if they can win 
Another day from this day's gain. 



LOVE AND WEALTH 

Love and Wealth at daggers drawn 
Stood debating loud one day, 
Love complaining of the frown 
Wealth put on his pleasant way. 

Love with pouting lip cried out : 
" You 're a pretty cad to know; 
All your darlings round about 
Flout me with my twanging bow. 

" Doubtless you are quite a swell. 
Never keep low company. 
But for all, I know full well 
You would better go with me. 

"Friends of yours get into court 
Wretched mid their luxuries. 
Whom you married as in sport 
With reluctant perjuries. 
239 



"Me you did not even ask 
To their costly nuptials gay, 
As were yours the only task 
Even for a wedding day. 

" But I 'd have you just to know 
Something better I can lend 
Than the sorry outward show 
Which seems to be your paltry end." 

Then Love stopped and fixed a shaft 
To his string and let it fly 
Where upon the corner laughed 
A ruddy shop-boy bright of eye. 

Gazing at him was a maid 
On the crossing drawing near, 
Saucy, pert, and unafraid, 
Fit to be his sweatheart dear. 

Feeling then a sudden smart. 
Quick he ran to take her hand, 
Quickly asked her for her heart, 
Which she gave to his command. 

Wealth with tossing head of scorn 
Pointed towards the amorous pair — 
"See," he said, "what wights forlorn 
You are pushing to despair. 

"Beggars born that have no chance 
Save to toil and live like beasts, 
Better 't were to let them dance 
Single through life's meagre feasts. 
240 



"You are always making lovers 
Quite regardless of all right, 
Satisfied if o'er them hovers 
Your fool's fiction of delight. 

"I am prudent, and I never 
Knit my striplings till I 'm sure 
They can live well, howsoever 
Lesser matters they secure. 

"And if you are missing oft 
At the nuptials that I make, 
Do not think we are so soft 
As to hold it a mistake. 

"Your mates too in court are seen, 
No more happy than are mine ; 
Lovers' quarrels oft have been 
Most unseemly — they are thine." 

Gave then Wealth his hand a toss, 
Glanced towards Love with freshened scorn: 
"You are childish, thinking dross. 
As you call my gold, forlorn. 

"But your couples often swear 
When they find an empty purse; 
Scarcely then do they forbear 
To speak ill of you and curse. 

"Half the world of babes is made 
Whom your raptures bring to be, 
Only like sweet flowers to fade 
Through your insufificiency. " 
16 241 



Wealth was dressed in latest mode, 
Wore an eyeglass at his eye, 
Which did poor Cupid sadly goad 
Who wore nothing, wet or dry. 

Yet was Love so radiant, 
Sweet of flesh, and lithe of limb, 
With caressing manner blent. 
Wealth himself did envy him. 

Just then at the curb-stone stayed 
A carriage drawn by dappled grays. 
Out from which there stepped a maid 
Lovely as the morning's rays. 

Eighteen summers had she seen; 
Fresher was she than a rose ; 
Rich she also must have been, 
Judging from her perfect clothes. 

Quickly Wealth took off his hat. 
Bowed him low complacently; 
Cried to Love, "Can you win that, 
With your dimpled smile so free?" 

Love said naught, but with a shaft, 
As the maiden glanced around, 
Touched her arm, as towards her laughed 
A broker's clerk on business bound. 

Money had he none, but sent 
Youth's sweet greeting from his eyes. 
Which, aided by Love's arrow, rent 
Way through all her fmeries. 
242 



"Now" cried Love, "let 's see you take 
That rich maid from my poor boy ; 
Ne'er again will she awake 
But to dream of him with joy." 

"Oh," sniffed Wealth, " a passing glance ! 
Quick 't will fade, and be forgot. 
My coy maidens do not dance 
Into love without a thought." 

But sly Love had swiftly shot 

To each heart an arrow true: 

" Now, my friend, they '11 surely wed 

Whatever you and yours may do." 

Then to Wealth, " Ta, ta" he said. 
Mounting on his painted wing, 
Thus from controversy fled. 
Doves convoyed his vanishing. 

Wealth remained to see the lad 
Drawing near the gilded maid. 
Felt a shiver far from glad. 
That she seemed not more afraid. 

When he spoke, responded she; 

Both said words that touched the heart; 

Handsome, virile, ardent, he. 

Well as lover played his part. 

When they wed one jocund day, 
Love and Wealth were bidden both 
Wealth assisted with dismay, 
Love with radiance, nothing loth. 
243 



Going from the church, Love ran, 
Took Wealth sweetly by the arm. 
Whispered, "Now you '11 see this bann 
Turn out free from every harm." 

" Better far than most of yours, 
On which you so dote and puff," 
Wealth replied, "It may be so," 
Shaking Love off in a huff. 

The pair lived long, the lad was clever, 
Made his way, and reached the top, 
Till her friends cried, "Did you ever! 
How much better than a fop!" 

Wealth and Love when mollified 
Each confessed 't was better so, 
When both invited had replied, 
"We will both to church with you." 



LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP 

"Friendship is longer-lived than love. 
Is stronger, saner, wiser far, " 

She said, and spread 
Her restless fan against the air. 
Cooling her cheek and eyes above ; 

The while, a smile 
Wreathed round her lips its subtle wile. 
244 



But in that smile Love played and danced, 
Snapping his fingers at his foes : 

His spell too well 
He knew to blanch at words like those, 
Secure of power where'er he glanced; 

Then cried, aside, 
"Short-lived am I? Thou 'st never tried." 



UNREST 

We wait for time's desired event 
While days creep forward into years; 
The hair turns gray, but sweet content 
Comes not till death discharges fears. 

Strange turmoil of the living soul 
That never can arrange its state 
To gain the restless moving goal 
Though one rise early and toil late. 

But this is life, to feel desires, 
Perennial motion urgent still, 
As wave crowds wave against the byres, 
As wind piles sand upon the hill. 

But why should mix such discontent 
With evolution's constant drift, 
And moving forward still be blent 
With sullen hatred at the shift? 

245 



Why should not nature tempt us more, 
With pleasure's lure to higher things; 
Make new experience less a bore 
Instead of maddening with its stings? 

Now nations large lie down distressed, 
Live like poor brutes exposed to chance, 
Because poor nature at her best 
Dispirits them from all advance. 

But there is naught for man to choose, 

He still must lift his pack and go — 

A pedler heavy-ladened, whose 

Grim needs scourge forward midst of woe. 



APHRODITE 

Thou conquering goddess fair 
Who still dost take the air 

Mid modem men, 
Thou hast not lost thy charm 
Nor has thy cheek known harm, 

Within our ken. 

Thou reignest o'er dress coats 

And forms swathed to their throats. 

With the same ease 
As o'er the gauzier folds, 
And forms half-nude — the molds 

Of ancient Greece. 
246 



Never shall faint thy power 
Whate'er betide the hour, 

Since all delights 
In thy white hand concealed 
Are to thy serfs unsealed 

Neath starry lights. 



LOVE'S PERIL 

"All, all for love" they cried and stood 
At the altar side by side. 
She just too sweet for anything, he 
Full of manly strength and pride. 

But neither had a cent and so, 
Come to living, they could get 
But a wretched place to live, 
For a few poor dollars let. 

Love looked in and saw them house, 
Staid a month or two, then said, 
"Let the beggar hunt his louse, 
I '11 go where I 'm better fed." 

When they looked across the hearth, 
Saw love gone and cupboard bare, 
She outbreathed a doleful sigh. 
He began to scold and swear. 

Maidens fair and young men bold. 
Think a little e'er you fling 
All your fortunes on a throw 
Which may double cyphers bring. 
247 



THE BAT 

Gray minion of gray twilight ! Thou 
Art scarcely bird or beast, I trow, 
Made up, Dame Nature knoweth how. 

Thy wings unfeathered curiously 
Oar swiftly through the airy sea. 
No flyer claiming kin to be. 

Thy zigzag flight were poorly meant 
To journey far, were that thy bent, 
But doubtless serves thy snug intent. 

Thou winged triangle haply sped 
From Euclid's musty page and dead, 
Geometry incarnated! 

Thou living mathematic queer 
Outlining problems on the air! 
Art fashioned thus to give us fear? 

Art creature of the evil one 

Men thought thee once? No! that's undone 

Since elf and imp alike are gone. 

And men see now a freakish mouse 
That with his trim ambitious spouse 
Hath taken wing and fled the house. 

To wag beneath the soft-eyed stars 
O'er fen and forest, streams and scaurs, 
Unseen of foes that daylight bears. 
24S 



How fares thy life in nature's stress? 

Holds she thee in a sad duress, 

Or keeps thee glad with fearlessness? 

In thy small breast do hopes and fears 
Perplex thine unimportant years 
With smiling hours, with weeks of tears? 

Like men thou must thy quick race run 
Beneath the stars, beneath the sun, 
And sleep when thy short stint is done. 

Where maybe thou dost suffer less. 
And know more of pure happiness 
Than those who greater powers possess. 

Hail and farewell, night-wanderer! 
Whose wee, weak eyes the dark prefer; 
Thou hast mid men thy congener! 



THE SQUIRREL AND THE LION 

A squirrel sat blinking 
And what he called thinking. 
On the edge of a limb. 
Of his life made precarious 
By foes most nefarious, 
That sought for a meal on him. 
He wondered if 't would not 
Improve his distrest lot, 
If fortune had made him 
A lion and bade him, 
Be free from his perils so grim. 
249 



A lion lay near him, 
So big one would fear him 
And drowsily snoring 
As if tired of roaring, 
Yet wishing creation 
Would send him a ration. 

And rousing from slumbers 

He thought of the numbers 

Who hunted his skin, 

Which he held a sin; 

And seeing the squirrel, 

Wished his little peril 

Were the cost of existence to him. 

"For no one," he said, 

" Could seek squirrel dead, 

So petty he is and so slim." 

So the small and the great 

Find fault with their fate, 

The weakling to power aspiring; 

While the lordly bemoans 

With infinite groans 

His fretted existence requiring 

Alertness and anger, 

To escape all the danger, 

That waits on his coveted bones 

Both lion and squirrel 
Have multiform peril. 
Since existence is nettled with ills. 
So small folk and great folk 
Are galled with life's tough yoke. 
And discomfort's porcupine quills. 
250 



The lion lived to green old age, 
The squirrel to be gray, 
Nor either suffered his presage 
Ere he had passed away. 



FELIX AMOR 



Love is the fire at life's high feast. 
It burns the blood like mantling wine ; 
It shows the lover at his best, 
It shows the loved — divine. 



The winds may blow, the floods may pour. 
The thunder crash across the skies, 
But clear above the tempest's roar 
Love sings the song that never dies. 



Long live brave love that swiftly rides 
From farthest plains to seek his fate; 
Nor asks what other thing betides 
When love he finds inviolate. 



Oh, fresh as dewdrops, sweet as clover 
Fall the kisses of the lover. 
Drowning still all fear of sorrows 
In flush hopes of blest to-morrows. 
251 



THE WHITE FLEET 



1893 



Silent, serene upon an even keel, 

Our mail-clad squadron glides within the bay, 

Majestic guardian of our nation's weal, 

Gilded and burnished by the lord of day ; 

The wave upbears its ships with glittering pride, 

As pleased to show their splendor on its tide. 

White as a flock of swans, they swim the main. 
The hue of peace their chosen livery ; 
As were their hearts of gracious burdens fain, 
Yet are their decks stowed with war's deviltry, — 
With engines to destruction consecrate, 
Devised for purposes of sheerest hate. 

Yet though their bulwarks war's leashed guns embay, 
With hearts ferocious as wolves of the wood, 
Theirs rightly is a snowy hue to-day; 
Since our republic beats its swords so good 
To ploughshares better, it is time to dight 
Our men-of-war in saintly robes of white. 

Yet 't were indeed a braver sight, though fell. 
To see them flashing in hot battle's bale, 
To hear the shrieking of the hurtling shell. 
And huge balls dropping in an iron hail, 
While glaring sulphur-clouds of rancor flew 
Across the fire-lit reaches of the blue. 

252 



That were a sight to kindle warriors' joy, 
To stir a man's nerves into rapture mad; 
To rouse the Berserker fury in a boy, 
And make red carnage seem a duty glad ; 
Such temper dwells in mortals passionate 
To have their wills, or forfeit life to fate. 

Then might one hear the groans of men, nor care ; 
Might sec the hot blood flow without a sigh ; 
Might hang upon the battle's flux and swear 
That this were work worth that strong men should die ; 
Such ardors in the hearts of patriots spring 
When country calls to loss and suffering. 

And sure 't would be, were foemen at our doors 
Threatening our costly cities with the guns 
Of hostile cruisers raking ports and shores, 
That we should count as dearest of our sons 
Who most was dyed in red of battle-stain. 
Who most of men in murderous fight had slain. 

And they who met these guns in deadly feud 
Would find stout souls behind them, dogs of war, 
Who 'd gaily put to life-risk flesh and blood 
To win or die as fits a gallant tar; 
Nor would one flinch so long as mast-head bore 
The starry flag above the surges hoar. 

'T were but foolhardy to expose our pride 
To any blustering rival's haughty spleen! 
Better in these well-shotted guns confide 
To meet the ever-threatening unforeseen ! 
Peace-keepers are they, whose thrice-hardened steel 
And piled-up shells forestall loud battle's peal. 

253 



Impressive symbols of our waxing state, 

Strong sentinels of honor in all seas, 

In unperturbed tranquillity they wait, 

Bold menace to all froward enemies. 

For latent thunders in their silence hide 

To smite rude foes should angry days betide. 

Yet is the day of these sea-tigers done ; 
States win by finer than steel men-of-war, 
Since commerce makes the nobler nations one, 
And civil argosies armed frigates bar; 
Men crave no more the broadside's furious blast, 
Iron-clads by ocean-greyhounds are outclassed. 

How far more worthy of a creature sane 
To launch rich steamers for the joys of life. 
Make seas a highway free for pleasure and gain, 
Than redden waves with blood of pleasureless strife ; 
No more bid laws keep still while arms contend, 
But silence arms while mightier laws defend. 

Long may our white ships rust untouched of fight. 

Homes of fair peace, playhouses of brave men! 

Stained of no gore, to citizens a sight, 

Saluting all flags on all oceans ! Then 

Shall still the starry flag that o'er them floats 

Speak but long peace from cannons' booming throats. 



THE CITY 

The river runs to the sea, 
To the sea the river runs ; 
But the city beside her streams 
Stands still beneath the suns. 
254 



And the people fill her streets, 
Fill her streets with a busy throng ; 
They go their ways to the abyss 
While the city still stands on. 

The cities men's hands have built 
Outlast all their other work ; 
They stay, though their builders depart, 
Whether Athens, Rome, New York. 

The country is void and wide. 
There is little which life can enhance ; 
But the city of human pride 
Is the measure of man's advance. 



MISER 

His motto was economy, 
He died a millionaire — 
If he be gone to glory 
May I go otherwhere. 



SPENDTHRIFT 

His cry was all for pleasure ; 
He died in want and woe ; 
He 's buried in the potter's field, 
Where may I never go ! 
255 



MELANCHOLY 

The sky is bright, the wind is chill, 
The waves lap coldly on the rock. 
My yacht tugs hardly at the dock, 
My love sits lonely on the hill. 

A quarrel sprang between us twain, 
A strife respecting naught of weight, 
But heavy with impending fate. 
And now we drift to sea again. 

So doth the edge of careless speech 
Cut through the nerve and throbbing heart 
And shear half-blended souls apart, 
Too proud and blind the truth to reach. 

Oft we are fools of accidents — 
Leaves in the wind of whirling chance; 
A day may wreck us, and the dance 
Of death bes:in amid our tents. 



THE FICKLE WINDS 

How and why do the north winds blow? 
They bring the sleet and the drifting snow ; 
They blight the flowers and the corn arow ; 
They chill the poor and the old eno' ; 
But who can know 
Why and how the north winds blow? 
256 



How and why do the south winds blow? 
They bring the spring and the gentle rain ; 
They touch the air with love's sweet pain; 
They call the children to field and lane; 
But who can know 
Why and how the south winds blow? 

How and why do the east winds blow? 

They bring the storm to the roaring sea ; 

They hustle the traveller on the lea ; 

They frighten the cattle and house the bee; 

But who can know 

Why and how the east winds blow? 

How and why do the west winds blow ? 
They bring the summer's abounding heat, 
The breath of the clover, the ripening wheat, 
The year's fruition thrown at man's feet; 
But who can know 
Why and how the west winds blow? 

How and why do the love winds blow? 
They blow in alley and field and sea ; 
They blow on high and low degree ; 
Their blow their rapture to you and me; 
But who can know 
Why and how the love winds blow? 



PHYSICS 

What fortune goes 
With the turn of a nose; 
17 257 



With dimple of chin 
May be all one may win. 
To an eye's bright fires 
May be given desires, 
And a shapely form 
Give us love and home, 
Or a voice's spell 
Bring heaven or hell. 
So much of the earth 
With the body gets birth. 



CIRCE 

Love sits about her brow, I swear, 
And plays about her yellow hair. 
A thousand loves are in her smile. 
More in her laughter to beguile. 
Her teeth, her lips, her chin enchain 
And what she says makes love again. 
Yet all is but an outward show, 
Her heart knows nothing of love's glow. 
Cool as a firefly's light, her fire 
But mimics love's unfelt desire. 



EXILE 

Love put I from me with his gurgling laugh, 
His voice of music, flesh so sweet and young, 
Because his memories filled my eyes with tears, 
My soul with anguish in deep silence wrung. 
258 



AT A CONCERT 

A pair of strangers entered there, 
Who both were young and she was fair, 
And he looked well enough indeed, 
Yet both were much too young to wed. 

But wed they were and newly so, 
Which made them flirt unduly, so 
They heard no music, bless your heart ! 
Music from them was miles apart. 

They sat and chatted wondrously 
As if they came there to be free, 
Nor march, nor waltz, nor overture, 
Beethoven, Liszt, nor Bach could lure. 

I went for music: I am daft 

For the sweet notes of that sweet craft; 

Love Wagner, Mozart, Verdi — all, 

And frown on those who mar their thrall. 



But yet this couple caught my eyes; 
They seemed so gleeful, in surprise 
I clean forgot the programme score 
Watching their childish glee before. 

What made me sadden at the sign? 
Seidl was good, the players fine; 
Yet in my eyes the tears did stand 
At Siegfried's love-song from the band. 
259 



But cross was I when all was o er — 
Old bachelors disturbed wax sore. 
I vowed such children were too young 
To send abroad o' nights alone. 

What ailed me ? Was it some quick thought 
Of her I loved a few years back, 
Who said me nay and cast a blight 
Upon the world of my delight ? 

Oh, no, indeed! I did not care — 
Others I knew, and just as fair; 
But still I sued for her, and now 
I roam the world alone, I know. 

And if she had said yes, I swear. 
Though she and I were older far, 
No sadder had I been I 'm sure 
Than this gay pair on bridal tour. 



WINE AND LOVE 

Fine is the blood of the vine 

In wine ; 
'T is a gift of the gods divine, 
Their sign ; 
It flushes pale cheeks with the red of the roses; 
Wreathes a smile round the lip on its beaker that closes; 
Of the slave makes a king for the breadth of an hour, 
Gay lord of the treasures of pleasure and power; 
Sparkling wine ! 
Juice divine! 
What gates are thrown wide by that red hand of thine ! 

260 



More fine are sparkling eyes, I opine, 

Than wine ; 
Gifts of the gods, that shine 

More divine; 
Wine of love that gushes from woman's fond eyes 
Makes wine of the vine a thing to despise; 
It mounts to the brain with a heavenlier fire, 
Young hearts with a nobler desire doth inspire ; 

Glittering wine, 

Though divine. 
Thou 'rt as water to love, whose wine outfumes thine! 



LOVE'S EXCUSE FOR FICKLENESS 

Since men are still of fickle minds, 
I lend them passions of all kinds; 

An hour is dower 
Enough for some, and me they bless 
For that hour's fill of happiness; 

Wouldst rob the mob 
Of that short bliss and leave a sob ? 

Others there are, for whom a week 
I save amid the general wreck ; 

A week they speak 
Of raptures, such as ne'er before 
Had knocked at their secluded door. 

What blame? No shame 
If soon they feel no more the flame. 
261 



And if the larger natures find 

A year of love to please their mind, 

A year is clear 
Gain for a life but poor and tame. 
You would not have it all the same ! 

Such time in chime 
Were long indeed — twelve months sublime! 

For some the rapture ne'er will die ; 

'T will crown life's cup and drown grief's sigh; 

Bless ease or stress ; 
Will make earth heaven for them, and I 
Shall be exalted to the sky; 

All men know then 
My gifts beyond all other ken. 



A WIFE 

The love of a lover is dear, 
But dearer the love of a wife is, 
For the first is afflicted with fear. 
The other secure for a life is. 

Secure if one wishes it so ; 
So faithful the heart of a woman 
She never will leave him to go 
If treated like anything human. 

If rudeness or daily neglect 
She resents, it should but excite him 
In reason to curb the defect, 
And then she will surely delight him, 
262 



Let the man disposed to complain 
That his wife is not to him mated 
His lover's attentions again 
Renew and find ills placated. 



MAN'S FUTURE 

O soul ! if soul thou art that plumest thy wings 

To fly along the dim, uncharted coasts, 

Of lands beyond the touch of sensible things. 

What hast thou caught with all thy sanguine boasts ? 

Knowest thou one point within the mists of death, 
One single harbor whither thou art bound? 
Does any wish to yield his mortal breath 
For angel courts, or happy hunting ground 



? 



The bold in faith still covet no new shore 
Enough to shuffle off this masquerade 
Of flesh whereof they speak so lightly: more 
Would they its often-threatened loss evade. 

The ignorant martyrs hastily shed their blood 
To ensure their title to a heavenly estate, 
But who to-day is bartering earthly good 
For all the prizes that the dead await? 

For honor, love, or truth, one well might die, 
And many a man would readily dislimb 
His fleshly form, or ere he would belie 
Whatever honor should demand of him. 

263 



But for a heavenly crown 't were small reward, 
Too small, O soul! thy fancies to abet; 
One cannot price thy guesses; 't were absurd 
Real gems to sell to buy an amulet. 

Therefore, O soul! of thee I crave consent 
To leave thy yearnings for the solid good 
That waits on those who on earth's toils intent 
Secure great profit by their hardihood. 

If after death new realms my eyes shall greet, 
New duties rise demanding noble deed. 
There '11 be enough of time, I wot, to meet 
The call that from deep nature shall proceed. 



CARPE DIEM 

Each mom I rise and think how glad 
The breezy hours will dance away ; 
Each mom mew meditations glad 
Chase all sad dreams of night away. 

I know that men are sick and poor; 
I know that children suffer harm ; 
I know that over street and moor 
There rises still some sad alarm. 

But who can make the world anew 
Relieve all hours of misery? 
Shall thrushes cease to fly and sing 
Because the mole hath voice nor wing? 
264 



Misguided those who call life drear 
And moan against its empty days, 
And who that cry in terms severe 
Against its pleasures. All its ways 

To me seem as the ways of God, 
Down which in joyous cavalcade 
Rich days and months have ever trod, 
Had man of all, the best still made. 

Fast flitting years their triumph fling 
Upon the changing, wilful breeze. 
Peculiar splendors flourishing 
And crowning all the common leas. 

We speak too much of loss and gain, 
We think too much of care and woe, 
We sigh at sorrow's pattering rain, 
Nor teach our hearts to rise and go 

From out the dismal, creaking throng 
Of life's perpetually roving ills, 
And sit its greater joys among. 
Which echo 'mid the uplifted hills. 



"Things are in the saddle and ride mankind, " 
Said Emerson, the sage of Concord town, 
Since things increased so much, and made men blind 
To thoughts which gave our well-fed sage renown. 

But sages know not everything; and he 
Perhaps knew not the struggling world so wide, 
Or he had written of the times we see. 
" Things 'neath the saddle are and mankind ride." 

265 



"Hitch your wagon to a star," 
Cries our bright Emerson ; 
But Charles' wain has not gone far 
Since chaos was undone. 



HER FAVOR 

Yes she is lovely as you say, 
Has lovely been for many a day ; 
Her brunette beauty is not cold 
Against that background, red and gold. 
Above most women's touch I prize 
One vivid glance of those dark eyes. 
A favor to me once she did, 
For when I wooed her as a kid 
She said me nay, and left me free 
To wed my sweeter wife you see. 



My love has many faults, I know, 
As biting wit, and frigid eyes. 
For they become her well, as snow 
The mountain top whereon it lies. 



MOUSE AND MATCH 

Mouse and match are small enow 
When foregathered in a hole, 
Both look hannless as things go. 
Both seem quite within control. 

266 



Mouse thinks match a morsel choice, 
Nibbles idly at its tip, 
Scuds with terror when a blaze 
Burns his tiny teeth and lip. 

Mouse whisks off, but fire burns on, 
Bums a house or two and spoils 
Family home and fortune won, 
Human life with grief embroils. 

So one little deed may kindle 
Flames within a concord fine, 
Furious hatreds quick immingle 
With burnt love once held divine. 



FLESH AND THOUGHT 



Not thy sweet face for all its charm, 

Nor thy rich voice for all its song. 

Nor yet thy molded hand and arm. 

Whose perfect grace have wrought such wrong; 

Nor yet that hair of rippling gold 
That on thy temples planteth snares, 
Nor that smile whose light untold 
Blots out the pain of earthly cares, 

Shall yet survive the fragile lines 
That thee proclaim the choicest fair; 
When flesh its beauteous blush resigns. 
The word remains that told it rare. 
267 



THE WHIPPOORWILL 

Dun-coated denizen of loneliest dale, 
That ever cri'st in melancholy rote! 
Can nothing for thy case enough avail 
But thou must 'plain forever in one note? 

And yet, I wot, thy fate is no way worse 
Than that of other wild-fowl of the wood, 
Thou hast a wife and children not perverse. 
Thou findest nature's locker stocked with food. 

Why then dost beat the minutes of the night 
With " whippoorwill " disconsolate? Is mirth 
So alien to thy heart, thou ailing wight ! 
That thou and sorrow count one hour of birth ? 

Or has the night, to which thou wailest most, 
So swathed thy soul in its perennial gloom, 
That like a spirit, pennyless on Styx' coast, 
Thou seest no rescue from a mournful doom ? 

Thou art as silent through the ambrosial hours 
Of sunlit day, as if a criminal 
Thou wert excluded from the breezy bowers 
Where other songsters hymn their madrigal ! 

But thou art sinless, as thy plumes unstained ! 
Within thy bosom lurks no secret crime ! 
Thee heaven's maledictions have not pained, 
That thou a penitent shouldst gloom thy time! 

Or chauntest thou some bloody hawk's sad dirge 
Whose acrid crimes upon its conscience sit, 
Which fain would show such sorrow as would purge 
Its guilt, till Paradise were oped to it? 

268 



Lost stragglers in the empty wilderness 
Hearing thy iterate note might droop and die, 
So much thy plaintive voice could hope depress 
And deepen to despairing misery ! 

Thy congeners thou hast in human kind 
Who ever moan along a prosperous way, 
As did foul nature blow with blighting wind 
Upon their fortunes through the brightest day! 

Their dismal notes will quench the cheeriest lay, 
Arrest the song of lark on soaring wing, 
Send storms of March across the blithest May, 
And chide with frost the opening buds of spring. 

Better to mask the piteous face of grief. 
Push back all tears, disguise the personal woe. 
In others' welfare seek the heart's relief, 
And like arbutus blossom 'neath the snow. 

TENNYSON 

If honey sweeter than sweet clover yields 
There be to gather from the earthly fields, 
Was not good Tennyson the busy bee 
Who knew to suck it out on every lea ? 

But life is not all honey as 't is found 

In pallid privacy's eventless round ; 

And he but touched its borders, writing well 

Of all good things that virtuous men befell. 

That never he life's stronger passions sang, 
Its deep despairs, crime's vengeance on her own, 
Makes that his verses never loudly rang 
With notes that stir to swart Othello's tone. 
269 



THE ROSEGG GLACIER 

Long since the day when hither came a bride — 

A bride and groom whose new feHcity 

Had scarce a week of durance, both o'erjoyed 

With such mad pleasure as but once in Hfe 

Comes even to favored men, when youth, strength, wealth, 

And beauty meet with love and take his hand 

And know his utmost rapture, without cloud. 

Life lay before them like a pleasure cruise 

On one's own cosy yacht in Orient seas. 

They here one day in the mere wantonness 

Of reckless pleasure went to stroll alone 

Upon the smooth-faced glacier blanketed 

With snow new-fallen. And what with glorious air. 

Bright sun, fair slopes, it seemed as innocent 

As any country wold, and brought them wine 

Of all delight, till in a sportive chase 

He ran before, she following hard behind. 

Eyes, cheeks, brows aglow, and laughter on their lips; 

But all at once, unwarned, he sank from sight 

Like some thin ghost, nor even uttered cry, 

While she stood frozen in a blank amaze, 

Then ran where he had disappeared and saw 

A yawning icy chasm, whose blue-green depths 

Peered through no lover showed, but only vacancy. 

Her heart stood still with horror, but no swoon 

O'ercomes true woman when such crisis falls, 

And swiftly grasping the emergency 

She called, and called, but getting no response. 

Ran to the village, where her frantic cries 

Rallied the mountaineers, and led them swift, 

As if on wings, to where her lord had fallen. 

"As if on wings," ah! yes, but miles are long 



And time has swifter wings, whose steady stroke 
Bear hours onward as wild pigeons fly; 
But those excited villagers made haste — 
A pitying haste, that still seemed slow and long. 
And reaching once the gulf, used every art 
Of rescue known, but ne'er the lost man found. 
So deep his dive in that unbottomed crevasse. 
And they would then return to their own homes, 
But she refused and clung there unconsoled. 
But at the last, all broken down with woe. 
She, having no more joy or hope in life. 
Heard how the glacier might give up its prey 
A half a century later, — at its foot. 
And, plighted heart and soul to that fond love. 
She made her dwelling in the hamlet near. 
And every day with piteous industry 
Walked up the glacier, following the crevasse. 
Her dear lord's sapphire grave, — as slowly down 
The hill it crept some scores of annual yards ; 
While she each day grew older, wan, and sad. 

But after forty years — since heedless time was kind- 
The wide crevasse, reclosed, had reached its bourne 
Hard by the glacier's foot, where day by day 
She sat and watched, with love as passionate 
As that which held her in that fatal hour. 
But that tenacious gorgon at the last 
Disgorged its booty to her hungry eyes. 
Delivered her husband's body, fresh and young. 
Its bones unbroken, all its fair face whole. 
And on his lips the smile that graced them when, 
With love's light in his eyes, he sank from sight. 
Such pity had the ice on sad mortality! 
Then one wild cry of joy broke from her soul, 

271 



One rapturous thrill drank up her patient life, 
She swooned away and fell all pulseless there, 
And so was borne — she and her lover reclaimed 
Were borne to the near hamlet and her home. 
And laid upon the bed she breathed again. 
And he ! — his corpse was trimmed for burial. 

But when, revived, her heart and sense returned, 

She saw his beauteous features like a youth's. 

So full and sweet the outlines — his blond hair, 

Unwasted, his straight form, and then recalled 

Her own long vanished beauty, long forgot. 

In the weird, wrinkled eld of her sad face, 

Her form how withered with her vigil long, 

How weather-beaten all her aspect gray. 

She felt a second blow as from new death, 

Since now her dear lord seemed more sadly lost 

Within the gulf of years than in the pit 

Whence he had come ; and never again 

Could that thrice dear companionship, that love 

Untarnished, treasured, lived upon so long, 

Her heart's sweet treasure unimpaired. 

Be knit again between them, — no! not though the mom 

Of resurrection should dawn soon, and heaven 

Its beauty lend to both. Then shrieking loud. 

Crushed by the bitter phantasy, and pang 

Of cheated love, she raved against the heavens. 

And falling into a hopeless melancholy 

Soon passed to that still land where none grow old. 



272 



Deacldlfied using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: 

JAN 1939 

BBKKEEPER 

PRESERVATION TECHISIOLOGIES. LP. 
1 1 1 Thomson Parl< Orivs 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 




